Home Forums Secure email solutions

HI folks,

I'm interested in doing more email communication with my patients. The click box inside A/C opens Outlook but of course it isn't secure or encrypted on its own. My current email and web hosting company (Network Solutions) has a nice little plug in... for $9.99 per month per email address (!) and it doesn't even work with Outlook 2007. That'd be $240 a year for my wife and me, just to send encrypted emails. Buncha crooks.

What I'd like is an easy plug-in solution to encrypt email that also works with Outlook, so I can access send email from within AC. (Or, some other solution that allows me to send email to a particular patient with a single click.)

I've found 2 products so far: AT&T has a Secure Mail product that's $5 a month per email address to send (free to receive) and encrypts using a "secret common password" which you have to agree upon with your patients, who have to enter this key in order to read encrypted messages. I'm a little concerned that this really isn't that secure, since hundreds if not thousands of your patients would be using the same code word!

Mirrasoft looks like a pretty decent solution - it's under $4 per month and has an Outlook 2007 plug-in, and requires end-users to register one time to access your encrypted message on a separate server. It's also free for end-users who only need to read, not encrypt.

Any other thoughts? Who's using secure email effectively? One barrier is that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get sent emails saved as part of the medical record automatically when they're sent. That'd be a nice feature...

Jim, who'd rather be in front of a computer all day than outside in New Orleans in late-July.

Jim, the issue of secure messaging has come up before and all of the solutions listed above add some burden to either the provider of the patient.

I would not want to insist it "works with Outlook." There are a great many people out there who do not have outlook but may use a 3rd party email client like ThunderBird, Opera, Eudora etc.

Now, in my opinion, the best way to do HIPAA compliant messaging with patients, is to never send the message, but instead send a notification that there is a message to be read on a secure server. The patient can then log in to his/her account on the server and read and reply to the message.

I will say again as I have said before, all of these wishes for AC, will easily outstrip the capacity of the AC developer to deliver improvement/fixes to the product and ADD FEATURES.

Jim,

Look at Hushmail. It is free and secure. www.hushmail.com

Leslie

Thanks, Leslie - looks perfect.

I like your website, by the way. Very friendly.

Jim

Jim,

This has been an age old problem and again frustrating since the same people who make the stipulations don't give the solution. The Mirrasoft sounds nice; I haven't looked at it yet. I have used CertifiedMail.com for awhile. $9.95 per month and works with Outlook and is free for the recipient. They can actually email you back on a different matter if they figure out they can go to the website and just reply to an earlier email.

CertifiedMail is nice because you can tell exactly when they open it, etc. It does take advantage of what George is saying in that the message is only on the secure server and only a notification goes out.

Companies like Medfusion offer a great solution, one where you can possibly even bill for, but as usual, it is pricey. And, that is the backend kind of communication directly through your website.

Getting back to CertifiedMail, the other frustration is that even in 2008, there are many people who can't even figure out how to retrieve the email. It automatically uses their email address as their username and only asks them to type in a password, which they then keep. But, even then, some just panic. It is every worse with doctors. I have had doctors, albeit ones that didn't grow up in the computer age BEG for me to send emails through NORMAL channels, eg unsecure and unencrypted plain emails.

It is another ridiculous part of the overall medical system that we, the physicians, are forced to pay for the product rather than the consumer or other entities. Given that Microsost charges over $500 for their suite of Office products, why could they not have huge secure servers where you could click on a secure icon where it works just as certifiedmail.com does. I wouldn't even mind paying more or even a small fee per year, say $75.00 or so. I imaging if we give Google enough time, they will figure it out.

And, finally, when I was using certifiedmail.com full force at my other practice, it was frustrating to have email go to several different places. You really want all of your communication coming to one place, which I read about yesterday but can no longer remember where I read it and what the solution was. I do recall the solution was expensive.

Bert wrote:


And this turns out to be a huge administrative NIGHTMARE should the patient's email change!!! This is a carry over to when most people only had one email address...why these large companies don't fix that I don't know!

>>>"I like your website, by the way. Very friendly.


Thanks, Jim. Obviously it is not professionally done but, hey, I prefer donkeys rather than horses so that should tell you something right there. The site pretty much gives a glimpse of the personality of the office and the patients who are attracted to us after seeing it (and these are numerous) are just the kinds of patients we like to have in our practice. So, it is a benefit to me too.

Leslie

$5/month/email is just rediculous. Ignore them. We use RelayHealth's system, which just sends an email that they have a message waiting. They sign on and read the message. The system also allows online consultations, which you can charge for.

Hushmail sounds like a good option. And Certifiedmail at $9.95/month "straight up."

I have never completely signed up for RelayHealth. Is it completely free? Paid for by advertising?

Unfortunately, there is no good way to converse with other doctors in a confidential way. CertifiedMail is the closest I have come. It would actually almost be worth the cost if other medical entities knew how to type in a password and used it themselves. I know that the state of Maine actually contacted me about a few of these programs when they were looking into a statewide program. But, I don't think I would hold my breath.

Records can certainly be sent much faster and cheaper via an email attachment than with a fax machine. I sent 500 pages by fax to another office electronically the other day. Since, they received it in paper, there was a whole ream of paper in one fax. That's roughly $7.00 or so give or take.

What the hell could you of had to have faxed that took up an entire 500 pages!!! And I thought I had a big mouth... Wow. Ii get angry when someone starts faxing over ten pages because the the trees and cost. When we see a really large fax, especially records coming in, we stop it, call the other office and tell 'em to please mail them. That sending half a textbook is so rude.

But 500 pages, our autofeeder can barely hold a tenth of that. Just what the heck were you sending???

We have discussed sending patient records on a CD. I can get 1000 CD's for $10. That's 10 cents per record. If the other Doc decides he/she wants to print it then so be it!

A routine patient with mitochondrial disorder, two autoimmune disorders, hyperaldosteronism and migraines. And, if they aren't set up digitally, oh well. But, how much quicker would it be if it were by email.

We use CDs as well. I still can charge $10.00 first page and 0.35 thereafter.