PORTAL POLICY and ETIQUETTE

 

We are pleased to offer a patient email portal to our patients.  

The portal is a great way to communicate with us in a HIPAA complaint way in order to protect your health care data.  

Communication with providers via the portal has been a reimbursable service for several years.  

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As of 4/1/24, we will bill for portal interactions where medical advice is sought and obtained. 

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No charges will be billed if communication/feedback is specifically requested by your provider on a particular issue or other care has been billed for this issue within 7 days of portal interaction.  

In most circumstances, we will respond to portal requests for medical advice by first documenting permission for the interaction and charge.  If you would like to proceed, your provider will then reply with a response addressing your concerns.  Charges are calculated based on provider time spent in review of your history and responding to messages.  

Please let us know if you have additional questions about portal based communication charges.

 

Please review some additional portal guidelines….

 

1 - The portal is for NON-URGENT communications.  All urgent matters should be reported to the office via phone.  In the rare event of an emergency, a call to 911 might be warranted. 

2 - Medication refills should most often be completed at your regular visits, usually your wellness visit. If refills are needed outside this, please allow a 48 hour turn-around time.  It is always a good idea to check with your pharmacy FIRST to check on the status of your refills.  Yes, we know it is hard to get the pharmacy on the phone - we have the same issues. 

3 - Most NEW symptoms/concerns warrant provider evaluation through an in-person visit (our preference) but we know that isn’t always possible.  Video, telephone and portal consultation all have their limitations but we strive to do our best to meet the needs of our patients wherever they/we are.  

4 - Unless your provider specifically requests it, it is not necessary to respond to portal messages to confirm receipt.

5 - Please remember that your provider is addressing portal messages as time allows, usually outside of clinic hours (yes, weekends, holidays and vacations, too).  

6 - Please do not use other family members’s portal accounts.  Portal communications are legal documents that will be saved in the chart of the portal account used.