I recently saw a story in the NZ Herald (click here to read the full article) about how your doctor can now register to have an online portal which you can access via a secure password. Depending on what information your doctor chooses to upload you could have instant access to your medical records/history or any recent test results and can even make appointments online, ask your doctor a question or request a repeat prescription.
With most of us having such busy lives getting to the doctor can sometimes be a big ask… but if it was just a matter of jumping online to ask a question or get results whenever it suited you, wouldn't that be awesome?
I was just complaining the other day about how much I hate having to ring my doctor's office every three months or so to request a repeat prescription for my asthma inhalers… it usually takes me a few days to remember to call during office hours. It would be much easier for me if I could just log on to my portal and request this online.
I can also see that this will be great for the insurance industry. At BRAVEday we always prefer that the insurers request a copy of our client's medical records whenever a new application is being assessed, to make sure there are no surprises at claim time. This can often delay the process by at least a week (sometimes much longer) and in some cases where a client has not disclosed any major medical issues the insurer is reluctant to request a copy of their notes as doctors charge them a fee to do this.
Imagine if every time you applied or made changes to your insurance you could just upload a copy of your medical history yourself and send this through with your application. In my opinion this would be a great thing for the insurance industry a whole as it would help to avoid non-disclosure issues and would help insurers assess claims quickly.
If you want to check to see if your doctor is currently registered for this portal click here