EPN - Electronic Prescribing News

      Web-based Service Offers Patients a New Way to Access Healthcare

    EMERYVILLE, Calif. and GAINESVILLE, Fla., April 19 /PRNewswire/ --

University of Florida Physicians, the UF College of Medicine faculty group

practice affiliated with the Shands HealthCare system that provides

outpatient care in Gainesville, is now using the RelayHealth service to

allow patients, clinicians and staff to work together in a secure, online

environment.

    By using RelayHealth, UF Physicians' patients can resolve non-urgent

health matters from the convenience of their computers. Patients can

conduct a webVisit(R) consultation with participating physicians, request

prescription refills and renewals, schedule appointments, receive lab

results, and request referrals -- all online. Clinicians and staff can

communicate with patients online; reducing phone volume and time spent

playing "telephone tag." With the RelayHealth eScript solution, doctors can

also write electronic prescriptions quickly and safely and send them to the

patient's pharmacy of choice. In some cases, doctors can even get paid for

webVisits.

    Dr. Aida Vega, UF College of Medicine's division of internal medicine

associate chief, is the medical director at Tower Hill Internal Medicine

and has been using RelayHealth to process prescription refills and referral

requests and she will soon begin using the webVisit feature.

    "My patients have given me a lot of positive feedback about the

increased level of access to me and other clinic staff," Vega said. "I

think it's a wonderful system. In fact, I was on vacation the other week

and used it to communicate with my nurse and staff, so I could stay in the

loop about my patients' needs."

    "Online care provides a good opportunity to strengthen the

doctor-patient relationship," said Kelly Kerr, Senior Director of Faculty

Practice Clinics. "It can promote thoughtful questions, thorough replies

and facilitate follow-up care that's convenient and effective for both

patient and physician. This communication vehicle can increase access to

healthcare without significantly increasing healthcare costs, thanks to

support from our health-plan partner."

    Patients benefit from improved access to their healthcare provider.

They also enjoy greater convenience in managing their healthcare. Messages

can be securely sent and received at any time from any computer with an

Internet connection, decreasing time away from work and waiting in a

doctor's office. Physicians benefit from increased productivity, expedited

processing of prescription refills and reporting lab results, and improved

patient satisfaction.

    Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) is sponsoring UF

Physicians' introduction of the RelayHealth system.

    "We believe that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida has a unique

role in advancing the health and well being of Florida's citizens," said

William Kerr, M.D., chief medical officer, BCBSF. "Through RelayHealth, we

now offer physicians with the University of Florida Physicians group and

their patients a safe and confidential way to communicate about non-urgent

healthcare needs."

    RelayHealth services are provided at no cost to patients with the

exception of the webVisit feature, which carries the equivalent cost of a

face-to-face office visit, for those with coverage through their insurance

plan. The webVisit is an online medical interview that gathers key data

about a patient's symptoms and relays it quickly and concisely to their

doctor. Through a special program, patients with health coverage through

BCBSF can conduct a webVisit while enjoying the convenience of accessing

care online from their own doctor saving valuable time.

    Today 81 providers and their offices are currently using the

RelayHealth service. Additional providers will be joining the service as

RelayHealth is rolled out across the University of Florida Physicians

practices.

    "University of Florida Physicians has been a leader in deploying

Internet-based services to improve healthcare processes," says Giovanni

Colella, MD, president and chief executive officer of RelayHealth. "We are

proud to add them as a client organization, and look forward to increasing

the benefit we can bring to their providers and their patients through the

webVisit reimbursement contracts we share with BCBSF."

    "Our patients and physicians have been asking for a secure way to

communicate electronically with each other, and RelayHealth provides an

excellent vehicle to accomplish that," said Jane Schumaker, UF Physicians

chief executive officer. "We are delighted that Blue Cross and Blue Shield

of Florida has sponsored our introduction to e-medicine and, even more

importantly, recognizes the value of providing coverage of webVisits for

its members."

    UF Physicians' patients can access RelayHealth through Shands.org.

    About University of Florida Physicians

    UF Physicians is the faculty group practice of the UF College of

Medicine in Gainesville, Fla., and is affiliated with the Shands HealthCare

system. The practice includes more than 850 physicians practicing in 42

clinical sites. http://www.shands.org

    About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida

    Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is a leader in Florida's health

industry. BCBSF and its subsidiaries serve more than 8.3 million people.

Since 1944, the company has been dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of

all those it serves by offering an array of choices. BCBSF is a

not-for-profit, policyholder-owned, tax-paying mutual company.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., BCBSF is an independent licensee of

the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent

Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. For more information concerning

BCBSF, please see its Web site at http://www.bcbsfl.com.

    About RelayHealth Corporation

    RelayHealth is the premier provider of secure, online healthcare

communication services. The RelayHealth platform connects patients,

clinicians, payers and pharmacies to improve clinical productivity, create

administrative efficiencies, reduce costs and enhance patient satisfaction.

Medical practices can quickly deploy RelayHealth to realize immediate

results such as increased physician productivity and reduced phone volume.

With the RelayHealth Interoperability Toolkit, practices can also integrate

RelayHealth with most major commercial or custom electronic medical record

and practice management systems. RelayHealth's robust suite of solutions

for the medical office includes secure messaging featuring the webVisit,

and end to end e-prescribing through eScript. The RelayHealth

communications platform also enables care management and continuity of care

through tools such as a Patient Health Record that interoperates with

physician and payer clinical systems. For information, visit

http://www.relayhealth.com/florida.