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Globally, doctors schedule approximately 8 billion patient office visits per year, and an estimated 1 billion outpatient visits are prefabricated to hospitals.  In addition, an estimated 250 million hospital admissions are prefabricated per year.  Approximately 4-5 million office organisation manage these events; almost 100% of the time via telephone communication.

Approximately 65% of administrative staff time is consumed by verbal communication with patients and other healthcare providers within their referral network.  Almost 5% of scheduled appointments become no-shows costing the health providers as much as per appointment.

Another major challenge in the healthcare delivery chain centers on payment for services.  In the United States- where the healthcare is a trillion industry- billions of dollars for services performed are written off annually because of insufficient, invalid and incorrect insurance/payer information.

The new opportunity

The existing appointment scheduling and insurance eligibility verification features that are included in health information technology applications such as Practice Management Systems (PMS) and Electronic Health Records (EHR’s), function, in most cases, only with a specific vendor’s application and are not compatible with other types of systems used by other healthcare providers.  More importantly, in most cases, functionality does not wage for interaction between doctors and patients and doctor-to-doctor referrals, and therefore, still requires office organisation to predominantly communicate verbally with patients, insurance companies and other payers – a very time consuming, pricey and inefficient method.

eMedischedule™ was developed by eMedischedule, LLC as a “universal gateway” through which healthcare delivery could be coordinated and managed online on a 24/7 basis-which results in costs reduction and improvement in revenue cycle management.  eMedischedule™ is a web based fully automated patient visit scheduler that provides doctors and patients with a central “Gateway” through which all healthcare appointments can be centralized.

The U.S. federal government’s new healthcare reform agenda includes healthcare cost reduction initiatives which accentuate automation of patients’ data.  eMedischedule™ will contribute to healthcare cost reform by automating and centralizing patients appointments.

Deploying eMedischedule™ requires insignificant set-up costs, minimum monthly subscription commitments and no capital outlay to the healthcare providers, and is entirely free to patients.  The eMedischedule™ pricing model is based on a menu-type features-and-services price list, and is billed on a usage basis.

What is eMedischedule™?

eMedischedule™ is a one-of-a-kind and proprietary web based, online patient appointment scheduler that provides doctors and patients with a central “Gateway” through which all healthcare appointments can be centralized, irrespective of the type or vendor-brand of healthcare information technology, such as PMS and EHR systems.  eMedischedule™ is an application-neutral tool that can be universally used.

How does eMedischedule™ work?

Physician offices, clinics and hospitals (“Practice”) are required to securely register for free at emedischedule.com.  As part of a easy registration process, the Practice is requested to update their eMedischedule™ customized calendar.  The calendar will contain all the obloquy of the doctors at the Practice and their respective appointments calendars.  eMedischedule™ will generate a unique, secure online ID and password (including various access rights levels) for the Practice to track their respective calendars.  eMedischedule™ calendars contains various features including, but not limited to, automated SMS text messaging, telephone reminders, Emdeon insurance verification and free e-mail service.  eMedischedule™ also enables Practices to manage their respective calendars and appointments via their mobile browsers. Once a practice is registered, the patients can request appointments online at emedischedule.com or through eMedischedule’s Toll Free service, 1-877-363-3472 (1-877-eMedischedule).  Appointments request is free for patients.  When a patient requests an appointment, eMedischedule™ verifies patient’s insurance coverage through Emdeon’s insurance verification system.  Patient’s appointment is confirmed once insurance coverage verification process is complete.  eMedischedule™ does not retain patient’s insurance and important individualized information.

What happens when a patient requests an appointment?

Once a patient requests his/ her appointment online or through Toll Free service, 1-877-363-3472 (1-877-eMedischedule), an automated SMS text and phone messages and e-mail is sent to the patient confirming the receipt of the appointment request.  The Practice’s calendar is immediately updated to reflect the appointment request.  eMedischedule™ provides the flexibility to patients and Practices to select date(s) and time when appointments remainders should be sent to patients.  For example, a patient can request that appointment reminders be sent to him / her 48 hours, 36 hours, 20 hours, e.t.c before the scheduled appointment time.  The Practice also has the capability to set appointment reminders-date(s) and time.  eMedischedule™ will send an automated SMS text, phone and e-mail reminders to the patient at the time specified by the patient or the Practice.  If the patient is unable to keep his or her appointment, the patient can cancel or request to reschedule the appointment via his or her secure statement at emedischedule.com.

What if a Practice would like to reschedule or cancel a patient’s appointment?

A Practice can reschedule or cancel a scheduled appointment by updating its eMedischedule™ calendar and eMedischedule™ will send an automated SMS text and phone messages and e-mail to the patient.

What types of eMedischedule™ service menus are acquirable to Practices?

eMedischedule™ provides two service options:

(a) eMediCommunity™  service option

Under this service option, various Practices can register anytime for free at eMedischedule.com and manage their eMedischedule™ calendars as a stand-alone product.  eMedischedule™ calendars are not integrated into the Practices’ existing PMS or EHR systems.  There is no monthly software license or subscription fee associated with the eMediCommunity™ service option.  The only cost to a Practice for using eMediCommunity™ is the cost associated with the automated SMS and phone messages to patients, Emdeon verification of patients’ insurance coverage and centralized call center support.  A Practice has various pricing plans to select from- including, but not limited to, prepaid plans and monthly pricing plans.

Additional free benefits to Practices using eMediCommunity™ include:

free customized web presence
24/7 online appointment requests from new and existing patients
ability to manage Practice calendar(s) and appointments via their mobile browsers
patients and Practices’ confidential/ important data is not retained or disclosed
no capital outlay required
free e-mail reminders to patients and Practices
usage of referral system for Practice-to-Practice appointment scheduling.  For example primary care physician- to -a specialist
appointment notification agent for Practices

(b) eMediPro™  service option

Under this service option, eMedischedule™ technology is offered as an integrated solution to any PMS or EHR system that is used by the Practices.  Via this option, eMedischedule™ calendars will be integrated with the Practices’ patient database to enable two way synchronization of data.  Once eMedischedule™ calendar is integrated into the Practice’s systems, the Practice will optimize their scheduling and resource utilization while at the same time interconnecting with various healthcare providers and patients.  Under eMediPro™ service option, a Practice will incur a minimal one-time integration fee and an insignificant monthly license fee.  The Practice will also be billed for cost associated with the automated SMS and phone messages to patients, Emdeon verification of patients’ insurance coverage and centralized call center support.  A Practice has various pricing plans to select from- including, but not limited to, prepaid plans and monthly pricing plans.

Additional free benefits to Practices using eMediPro™ include:

free customized web presence
24/7 online appointment requests from new and existing patients
ability to manage Practice(s) calendar and appointments via their mobile browsers
patients and Practices’ confidential/ important data is not retained or disclosed
no capital outlay required
free e-mail reminders to patients and Practices
automation of communication between the Practice, health care bourgeois network and patients
optimize resource utilization e.g. Lab, Radiology e.t.c
expanding in-Practice scheduling system to a global internet-based schedule management system
usage of referral system for practice-to-practice appointment scheduling.  For example primary care physician-to-a specialist
appointment notification agent for Practices
inter-clinic appointment resource management

Centralized Call Centers service

For those patients who are unable (or like not) to make online appointment requests at emedischedule .com, eMedischedule provides a Toll Free service, 1-877-363-3472

(1-877-eMedischedule) to assist patients, on a 24/7 basis, to request appointments from various clinics.  Call center reps based in the United Says and Turkey wage “live” 24/7 support and interaction.  Call center reps will use eMedischedule™ to find acquirable appointments through registered clinics and physicians.  eMedischedule™ does not use important individualized information in order to perform appointment requests and therefore patients privacy will not be compromised.

Centralized Chat assistance to patients

eMedischedule.com has a 24/7 chat feature that assist patients who would like to use eMedischedule™.  Chat assistance reps guide and assist patients to search for healthcare providers, appointment availability and to request appointments from clinics/physicians on behalf of the patients.  Chat utility can be accessed through www.emedischedule.com

Are there any other eMedischedule™ features?

Other eMedischedule™ features include:

Physician-patient dialog, e.g. “Please bring MRI to appointment”
Physician referral network
Physician-physician dialog, e.g. clinical discussion such as reason for referral
Automated insurance eligibility verification at the time of making appointments
Downloadable medical questionnaires – reduces inefficiencies in the healthcare Practices.
Banner advertising for pharmaceutical companies
Features to help patients to verify healthcare bourgeois credentials
Appointment record locator
Sixty second Appointment Notification Agent.
Outlook Synchronization
Ability to customize calendar colors, look and feel
Ability to edit Practice Interface
Ability to add family members to one statement and manage entire family appointments
Ability to control the number of appointment requests from Patients
Ability to request appointments via e-mail or cell phones by patients

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