Patient Portal Functionality and Integration

Webcast details

We will be giving an introduction into our partnership with Medfusion, specific to the Patient Portal Integration Solution. Will present high level information relating to what kind of data is being exchanged between the Patient Portal and the EMR, along with a demonstration of the integration developed for Medfusion. Finally, will be reviewing Meaningful Use Stage II (MU2) core measures which relate specifically to the Portal.

Originally aired: Wednesday, October 21, 2014 Presenters: Tyler Suacci and Matt Leyva

Webcast materials

Download slideshow Presented 10/21/2014

Q&A

Q. Is the ability to see if a patient is on portal via Allscripts PM specific to Med Fusion Portal or should we see this otherwise?

A. For the Medfusion Patient Portal Integration with Allscript PM/ProEHR, PM and ProEHR users have the ability to see if a patient is registered on the portal. I can’t say for certain that integrations with other portal solutions work in the same manner, but I would speculate that there is a way to tell if a patient is portal-enabled.

Q. Can the provider send a message to elicit a patient response? Or is the only way to meet the measure for the patient to initiate the message?

A.Our understanding is that the provider can send a clinically relevant message to a patient and any patient response back to the eligible provider (EP) will trigger the calculation. The measurement is driven off the numerator, so as long as the patient is sending a message to their EP, even if it is a response, it would count. As always, we encourage any specific attestation questions to be confirmed by using the CMS website http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/Stage2_Toolkit_EHR_0313.pdf

A. As a follow up from the question raised above, regarding if a patient has to initiate the message or not, we received the following message from CMS "There is nothing in the regulation that limits the measure to patient initiated communication. The objective of the measure is to Use secure electronic messaging to communicate with patients on relevant health information."

Q. How are CCD's triggered from the EHR to the portal?

A. There are two ways to trigger a CCD from ProEHR to the Medfusion Patient Portal – both are automated. First, CCD’s are auto-generated once the patient accepts their invitation to the portal and registers with the portal. Second, upon completion of a visit/encounter in ProEHR a CCD is auto-generated and sent to the portal.

Q. You mentioned the MU measures were core measures, does that mean there are no exemptions for Core Measure 7?

A. Any EP who neither orders nor creates any of the information listed for inclusion as part of this measure may exclude both measures, except for “Patient Name” and “Provider’s name and office contact info” may exclude both measures. A. Any EP that conducts 50% or more of his or her patient encounters in a country that does not have 50% or more of its housing units with 3Mbps broadband availability according to the latest information available from the FCC on the first day of the EHR reporting period may exclude only the second measure