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I would like some help with choosing a PHR middleman that would just satisfy the need for having a patient portal on a practice website. Every middleman I have talked to wants to run my practice.
Who can help me with a PHR with a patient portal that will not dump other services that I already have in amazing charts and do not need to duplicate. HealthVault by microsoft, needs a middleman.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

Have you thought about Updox?

Updox is a reasonable thing that will satisfy the requirements of a portal allowing you to send HIPAA compliant e-mails, but will not really give you everything a full portal gives you. One advantage is that you can get this for a cost of 30-40 per month.

Another option is to use a full PHR - the one chosen by AC as the one they are working with to get full integration is called Practicom PHR. Currently it allows you to send the CCD, CCR, lists of pt.visits with the date and CC, immunizations, meds, allergies and upload all labs and imported items. It gives the patient the ability to review all of this along with diaries which they can put weight, blood pressure and blood sugars. This model charges the pt. I think $4-5 per month for the privilege of this. It also allows you to send 2 way email, broadcast messages, newsletters, etc. Full integration with AC is being developed and I use it now. Patients get a 'Lite' access for free - allows them to receive e-mail from the office, patient education access, use of the logs - some patients have signed up and then upgraded to the full version after seeing the features. I think it is very good and the only drawback is educating patients to realize that the cost of the PHR should be born by the patient - to often we have paid for things that really need not be free.

Thank you for your reply, no, but I will.

I did fill out a contract with PracticomPHR, but because I have 90% medicaid patients, they have refused to honor my application.
They say it is not profitable for them. However, they did offer me a chance to pay 250.00 dollars per month, plus other fees to use their service, sometimes that's all I make in a week. I felt weeded out because of the population I serve.
Thank you so much for your reply. I will try updox.
My new question then is will updox satisfy meaningful use?

I wish I knew when they might go live with an integration. I'm re-evaluting the tools we use, and we have started considering a change to Updox. It would be nice to have options to choose from.

We are just learning about Practicom. My initial impression is that the portal may have some advantages over Updox. On the other hand, as best I can tell, Practicom really doesn't help with document management, and Updox is terrific for that. In other words, they are complementary with some overlap. Of course having both may not be practical, depending on pricing.

mez, as to your issues...what I am hearing is that the whole pricing structure of Practicom is being re-evaluated so we will have to wait and see what the cost will be.

Steven, are you currently using Practicom?