Client portal

A client portal can help you run your therapy practice more seamlessly and efficiently. A client portal provides your clients with a secure and private tool to communicate with your practice, their therapist, and manage their account. 

It is a digital gateway to your practice where your clients can engage in many services from the privacy of their computer, tablet, or phone. This article will take a closer look at how using a client portal in your practice can benefit you, your staff, and your clients.

What is a client portal?

A client portal is a unique and secure access point to your practice that you assign to your clients. Most electronic health record (EHR) programs provide a client portal as a function of their software. 

It is very easy to give clients access to your therapy portal. Typically, you would forward the client an invitation to set up a client portal account as part of your process of establishing your client in your EHR system. 

A client portal can provide clients with an online connection to the practice. With a client portal, clients, therapists, and other office staff can engage in important tasks related to client accounts from their computer, tablet, or phone.

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Most client portals provide a secure and private opportunity for clients to:

• Request appointments
• Schedule appointments
• Cancel or reschedule appointments
• Complete and electronically sign paperwork
• Submit homework, assessment tools, etc. 
• Securely message between the client and therapist
• Have a telehealth session
• Make any payments for services
• Share any documents from other providers

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Uses of a client portal for your therapy practice

A client therapy portal can help your practice to:

• Run more efficiently
• Promote your branding
• Protect your client’s privacy
• Increase fee collection
• Enhance communication 

We’ll look at each of these benefits in more detail. 

Run your practice more efficiently

A client portal helps to centralize activities in your practice into one secure and accessible location. A portal makes it easier for everyone (clients, therapists, office staff) to access necessary information related to the practice and a client’s chart whenever it’s needed from a single location.

The client does not need to call the office to cancel, reschedule, or make an appointment. They can simply log onto the portal and access the calendar. They can log onto the portal to make a payment on their account, submit homework before the session, or sign any forms. 

Therapists, assistants, and other staff in the office can also easily access the client’s record through the portal. The therapy portal allows you to confirm scheduling, communicate with clients, review homework prior to a session, request payment, and send forms for signatures in one convenient location.  

When a practice runs more efficiently, your clients may receive better treatment outcomes. As a therapist, you can spend more time focusing on treating your clients vs. managing certain operations in your practice.

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Promote the branding of your practice

Most often, the portal software allows you to personalize your portal with your branding. You can add your logo, tag lines, colors, or graphics to the portal, forms, and other documents. You can personalize the invitation that you send to your clients to join your therapy portal to include links to your website, social media, or email list. The therapy portal gives you another avenue to increase your brand visibility and promote your practice.

Protect the privacy of client information

A therapy client portal should be a secured and encrypted software program. Your portal will provide more protection and security for your client’s information. Your clients can feel more comfortable and safe engaging with your practice knowing that they have a private and secure way to take care of activities. A therapy portal can help to remove some of the worry, barriers, and stigma a client may experience related to going to therapy.

Through a therapy portal, clients can: 

• Privately schedule appointments without worrying about someone overhearing their telephone conversation to your office. 

• Securely pay their bill without worrying about anyone intercepting a paper bill. 

• Communicate with private messaging to the therapist knowing that no one else will see the message or email. 

• Exchange documents, sign paperwork, and share homework with privacy and security. 

• Engage in a private telehealth session knowing that the session is HIPAA compliant and no one else can log into the session or intercept a call.

Increase fee collection rates

A client therapy portal can increase the likelihood of collecting fees for your sessions, missed appointments, and other services that your practice offers. The client portal should provide a safe way to store payment information within the client’s account. This function allows you to run the card for each service rather than waiting on the client to pay you. 

The therapy portal also provides you with the ability to collect payment for services before the session. The client can log onto their portal before each session and make payment or you can run the charge for the session before you begin. The client portal should also allow you to send links to the client for payment, invoices, and superbills.

Enhance communication with clients

The therapy portal provides different opportunities to communicate with clients between sessions:

• Secure messaging
• Scheduling
• Submitting homework, assessment tools, and journal pages
• Payment collection
• Signing and submitting paperwork and documents

Through enhanced communication opportunities, the client portal can improve client engagement in therapy and improve treatment outcomes.

What to look for in a client portal

Most EHRs offer access to a client portal. This option helps to connect the portal to the client record. Depending on the EHR that you select, the therapy portal may offer different functions. 

As you build and maintain your practice, you may prefer and need certain functionality for your client portal. Some functions to consider include:

• HIPAA-compliant security and encryption (make sure the software has a Business Associate Agreement to sign.)
• Branding ability
• Mobile access
• Access through an app
• No charges to the client
• Compatibility with common computer operating systems (ex.: Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS, Android)
• Help functions
• User-friendly
• Allows clients to upload information
• Secure messaging
• Secure payment storage
• Processes online payments
• Sends invoices and superbills
• Online scheduling
• Telehealth
• Ability to share forms and obtain electronic signatures
• Instant messaging, chat features or text messaging