Allscripts and Medfusion today announced a strategic agreement to provide the top-ranked Medfusion patient portal for Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management clients nationwide.
The new Allscripts online patient communications solution, or patient portal, will enable physician practices to save time, lower costs and increase revenue while providing services that are increasingly popular with patients. In place of paper forms and phone calls, the solution, which will be called Allscripts Patient Portal, enables patients to make appointment requests, renew prescriptions, view test results and conduct other common tasks on-line, including HIPAA-compliant secure messaging with their care team.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected to require physicians to provide electronic patient-to-provider communications as a condition of qualifying for Electronic Health Record incentive payments authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
“We are excited to expand our partnership with Allscripts in a way that aligns both companies to help physicians and their practices meet the guidelines for meaningful use of healthcare technology under the ARRA,” said Steve Malik, Chief Executive Officer of Medfusion. “Patient involvement – through access and communication – in the management of their care is critical to reshaping healthcare in America, and Medfusion is proud to offer the platform to enable such change.”
Allscripts Patient Portal will be integrated with Allscripts Electronic Health Record and Practice Management solutions. Patients now will have one sign-on to reach a complete source for any of their clinical or administrative needs. And physician practices will have a state-of-the-art portal that saves time, money, and increases revenue while providing valuable services that patients increasingly want and need.
“Physicians are eager to strengthen their relationship with patients and enhance the quality of care they provide by making the entire care process more efficient, more effective and easier for patients,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “Our agreement with Medfusion, a true industry leader in patient portal solutions, offers physicians the best clinical and administrative communications solution available today, while satisfying the requirements that we believe will be approved by CMS.”
