SAN FRANCISCO – By offering its members a patient portal through clearinghouse provider Office Ally, Blue Shield of California is hoping for greater adoption of the tool.

More than half of BSC’s IPA provider network already works with Office Ally, and the clearinghouse provides free online messaging tools to both providers and members, said Jim Orchison, director of BSC’s network design and programs.

Greater adoption of the Patient Ally portal may “result in more efficient and effective healthcare,” he said.
In addition to communicating online with physicians, members can consult with their doctors via e-visits, schedule appointments, request referrals, prescription refills and renewals and receive lab or test results.

“Office Ally provides convenience and value to all parties, enabling our providers and members to exchange messages quickly about non-urgent healthcare matters online,” Orchison said. “We are dedicated to making healthcare easy to navigate and access.”

The portal delivers messages, such as missed screenings, to patient and provider. This provides an opportunity to close gaps in care and control costs through well care, which is especially valuable for members in high-deductible plans, said Brian O’Neill, president and CEO of Office Ally.

The portal will also bring value to BSC network providers, he said. Office Ally works with 92 percent of California’s IPAs, 81 percent exclusively. “The patient portal, with its EHR ‘lite’ capabilities, will enable physicians who haven’t yet adopted EHR to gradually move toward that technology,” he said.

With cost being a major barrier to EHR adoption, the free EHR lite is an attractive proposition for physicians.Because the ASP-based patient portal integrates with the physician’s practice management system, O’Neill said, the transition is seamless.

Clearinghouses are valuable because physicians have developed a trusted relationship with them, said Randy Vogenberg, principal at the Institute for Integrated Health Care. “This is key to adoption,” he said.
Another important benefit clearinghouses bring is the ability to scrub and organize data in a logical way and present it in a usable way, Vogenberg said. “Clearinghouses help providers have all the information they need,” he said.