As the world rapidly becomes digital, many healthcare organizations are implementing patient portals to enhance the patient-physician relationship, increasing accessibility and patient engagement. The coronavirus pandemic has served to drive the adoption of patient-centered care forward as healthcare providers increasingly rely on remote interactions with their patients.

As more healthcare organizations embrace the digital era, there is pressure to provide a comprehensive range of services online. However, information transmitted through a patient portal is likely to be of a sensitive clinical nature and fall under the remit of HIPAA legislation. Healthcare organizations must carefully select HIPAA-compliant Patient Portal Software to ensure that any shared Protected Health Information (PHI) is safe and secure.

Top 12 HIPAA-Compliant Patient Portal Software

Choosing suitable software can be difficult, so we have compiled a list of some of the best Patient Portal applications, focusing on the security features that each one offers.

1. Cerbo

Cerbo by MD HQ provides patients with a fully interactive, user-friendly, and secure patient portal. This enterprise-level, HIPAA-compliant, configurable software allows patients to schedule appointments, exchange secure messages, view and update their medical records and medications, monitor and record vital measurements, and manage their bills.

2. Athenahealth

Athenahealth, recently awarded 2020 Best in KLAS: Small Practice Ambulatory EMR/PM, offers healthcare providers a cloud-based platform for managing electronic health records (EHR), telehealth, care coordination, patient engagement, and medical billing. Their patient engagement solution, athenaCommunicator, provides a patient portal that enables patients to take an active role in their healthcare, by scheduling appointments, signing medical forms, managing their bills, and receiving reminders via email, text message, or phone call. Athenahealth takes security seriously and has achieved HITRUST CSF Certification and EHNAC Certification demonstrating its compliance with HIPAA, HITECH/ARRA, ACA, Omnibus Rule, and other applicable state legislation.

3. Epic

Ranking Best in KLAS for the fourth year running, Epic System’s MyChart patient portal is a leader in this space. Epic’s MyChart allows patients easy access to personal and family health information, with the ability to schedule appointments, securely message their doctor and attend e-visits. This software allows patients to garner greater control over the management of their health. The MyChart Bedside offering enables inpatients to enjoy the benefits of the portal while in the hospital.

4. Ambra Health

Ambra Health is an award-winning, cloud-based medical data and image management suite. Ambra Health offers an easy-to-use patient portal, replacing CDs as the traditional and less secure means of image sharing. This platform can also be easily integrated with other popular EHR systems, including Athenahealth. Ambra Health is committed to providing its clients with up-to-date and full healthcare compliance.

5. Elation Health EHR

Elation Health’s cloud-based and ONC certified EHR platform delivers a clinical-first patient management solution. Their patient passport allows access to secure messaging, doctor’s notes, and medical information. Elation Health implements highly advanced, bank-grade information safeguards to secure patient data, including 256-bit SSL/TLS and AES-256 data encryption and password protection.

6. TheraNest

TheraNest provides a web-based mental health practice management platform that is fully HIPAA-compliant. Patients can access an efficient portal, allowing them to complete and sign intake forms, build custom forms, schedule appointments, manage their bills, and exchange HIPAA-compliant messages with their physician. TheraNest ensures that all data remains HIPAA-compliant using SSL encryption in transit and at rest.

7. Bridge

Bridge is a leading HIPAA-compliant and ONC-certified patient portal solution that can integrate seamlessly with any existing EHR. It offers a comprehensive selection of features including patient registration, appointment scheduling, secure messaging, bill management, and access to medical records. Complying with all HIPAA regulations, Bridge is routinely audited by third-party security auditors.

8. Heno

Heno is an online practice management system, designed for use by professionals within the physical, speech, and occupational therapy sectors. An all-in-one solution, Heno provides an EMR, software for billing, marketing, and sales, and a patient portal. Heno’s servers are hosted and maintained in a HIPAA-compliant data center, using SSL encryption. They also use Transparent Data encryption (TDE) to encrypt patient data at rest.

9. Practice Harmony

Practice Harmony, developed by Mahler Health, is one of the leaders in the practice management space, offering a complete cloud-based and HIPAA-compliant solution to streamline workflow. Their patient portal allows clients to receive reminders, fill out forms ahead of appointments, manage their bills, schedule appointments, and access their medical data. Patients can access the portal via their mobile devices for ease of use and increased accessibility.

10. RXNT

Healthcare providers can rely on RXNT for a cost-effective, cloud-based integrated healthcare platform, providing solutions for practice management,  electronic health records, billing, patient engagement and access, and telehealth. These solutions can be deployed as stand-alone products or as a fully integrated system. RXNT complies with all HIPAA regulations and, as a cloud-based platform, is inherently more secure than server-based products, implementing automatic patches and updates. RXNT has achieved SOC 2, Type 2 certification.

11. Simplepractice

Simplepractice is an intuitive cloud-based practice management platform that has partnered with over 100,000 practitioners, including some leading names in the industry. Offering solutions for scheduling, online booking, fully paperless intake, telehealth, patient billing, and client communication. Simplepractice is designed for small businesses within the mental health sector. It implements several privacy and security controls to ensure regulatory compliance, these include data encryption, access controls, vulnerability management, network protection, endpoint protection, and disaster recovery.

12. Mend

Mend delivers complete cloud-based telehealth and patient engagement platform to medium and large healthcare organizations. Individuals and smaller practices may also take advantage of the platform via a free option that offers limited features. A patient portal offers access to many features, including HIPAA-compliant messaging, telehealth, digital intake forms, and patient scheduling. Mend’s innovative AI technology, PredictiveIQ, can predict no-shows and cancellations with 99% accuracy.

Atlantic.Net: Incorporating HIPAA-Compliant Hosting Solutions

Choosing a HIPAA-compliant patient portal software is the first challenge, but the next is choosing a leading HIPAA-compliant hosting provider to host your chosen website or application. Focusing on your HIPAA compliance requirements, Atlantic.Net can offer you a turn-key HIPAA hosting solution. As a leader in the cloud services industry, we offer a robust and scalable hosting environment and fulfill all HIPAA, HITECH, PCI, or SOC requirements. We secure our infrastructure to industry standards and are independently audited by third-party auditing firms to assess our compliance.

To find out more about the solutions that we offer, contact our sales team today!

This article was updated on March 29, 2022.