CareCloud will integrate functionality from Box into its cloud-based platform, which can enable physicians to share records, lab results and other private content with their patients in a HIPAA-compliant environment.
Currently, practices that use CareCloud can enable patient access to records and financial documents through the CareCloud patient portal. Thanks to the Box partnership, providers will soon be able to store, manage and access these documents from a patient's Box account.
The partnership between CareCloud and Box made sense because both companies are committed to developing using open APIs. According to Box’s senior VP and general manager of enterprise, Whitney Bouck, the cloud allows physicians and patients to access platform-agnostic solutions from any location or device.
"By working with leading innovators in the electronic health record space, like CareCloud, we can help both providers and patients make medical records and documents more portable and accessible," Bouck said.
CareCloud offers several practice management tools for healthcare providers. Its complete system, called Central, integrates patient information, scheduling, billing and analytics. In addition to offering its cloud solution, CareCloud's professional services team helps clinics to deploy and learn to use Central.
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CareCloud offers other practice management modules including Charts, for electronic health records; Concierge, for revenue management; and Community, for secure social networking between doctors and patients.
The company's solutions are designed for specialty practices, small primary care practices, large healthcare groups and medical billing companies.
One obstacle that causes medical practices to fear cloud services like CareCloud is their fear that cloud data is not secure. In other words, they fear that additional risks, including data breaches and HIPAA violations, are inherent to the cloud environment.
However, as Shahid Shah, known around the industry as "The Healthcare IT Guy," points out that the cloud is fundamentally more secure. In fact, storing encrypted data in the cloud is more secure than storing data onsite.
Shah also says that clinics should stop viewing cloud security as a finite event. Instead, they should see it as evolving, just like healthcare itself.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
