Navigating Your Patient Portal: A Guide to the Pros and Pitfalls

While you wait for word from your health care provider, it’s important to remember that your test results are often sent to your doctor at the same time they are sent to you, so you need to allow time for your physician to review the results and reach out. Complicating matters is the shortage of health care providers and administrative staff, especially those who work in primary care.

“A lot of our offices are working short staffed by 15 to 25 percent, depending on the position,” Kevin Hopkins, a family physician and primary care medical director for Cleveland Clinic Community Care, said in a 2022 interview with the American Medical Association. “So, recognize that it may take us a little longer than usual to respond to your inquiry.”

If you know that you’re prone to worry or anxiety over test results, wait a day or two for the doctor to call. Medical offices typically have good systems for review and triage of messages and work hard to get back to you within 24 to 48 hours.

That said, if your doctor told you that your test result might be time-sensitive and you have not heard back the same day, you may want to send in a message with a “high priority” notation.

What about security? Sittig warns that “someone could steal your login credentials and view your private health information.” To help avoid this, he recommends taking “the same precautions as you would be taking with your banking information.” Setting up two-factor authentications (password and text message confirmation) is one way to give yourself protection. To avoid falling victim to a phishing scam, be careful of emails from people or organizations that you do not know or whose names are spelled incorrectly, Sittig says.  

Patient portal best practices

So now you know: Don’t spend your time trying to interpret your test results on the patient portal. Instead, use the platform for these five features.

• Making appointments.

• Updating your medication list.

• Determining what vaccines and routine tests are due.

• Sharing medical notes with a family member or caregiver.

• Communicating with your doctor or health care team.

One note on that last point, however: If you send a message to your doctor in the patient portal, just know that it could cost you — some offices are charging for portal messaging, and others may do so in the future.

The reason being, physicians today receive 57 percent more patient portal messages than they did before the pandemic, according to the American Medical Association — and answering all these requests and questions takes time.

In response to the increased workload, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees Medicare, expanded billing options and reimbursement for patient portal messages that require more than five minutes of clinician time. Similarly, many institutions such as Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins are charging for responses that require medical expertise and more time by the doctor.

How do you know if you’ll be charged for your portal messages? You’ll see a note in the messaging center that you may be billed for the doctor’s time. Medicare and private insurers generally cover these charges, although some patients could be on the hook for out-of-pocket expenses.

If you do need to send a message to your doctor in the portal, keep it on the short side — think text-message length. If your message can be answered by someone other than a doctor — for example, if you are confirming appointment logistics or the correct dose of a medication — another member of the care team may respond.

Finally, if your issue is urgent, skip the portal and call the office.