RelayHealth enables online communication between doctors and patients, including clinically based consultations, appointment requests, the ability to get referrals, lab and test results, and electronic prescriptions and medication refills. Members also will be able to receive new prescriptions and refills electronically from their physician.
RelayHealth says that these ‘web visits’ are more secure than e-mail. Unlike e-mail, which relies on multiple servers across the Internet, RelayHealth uses a single, centrally managed database for doctor-patient communications.
Dr Charles Cutler, Aetna’s national medical director, said, RelayHealth’s secure, Web-based physician-patient communication service gives members a new way to access non-urgent health care needs with security and convenience, and physicians tools to efficiently communicate with their patients and manage their care. The structured online questionnaire provides a framework that helps ensure physicians can collect adequate condition-specific information.
