Frequently Asked Questions

What is Medicity?

Medicity is a secure Internet platform for physicians and healthcare professionals that provides quick, convenient access to data, applications, and communications. Medicity offers a single point of access to patient data and applications from a wide range of sources such as hospitals, laboratories, imaging centers, and payors. Medicity can accommodate any electronic healthcare resources - regardless of the vendor-onto its secure platform. Medicity offers an impressive array of useful tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare providers, including a prioritized messaging system, a clinical data repository, organization calendars, e-mail, document management, and much more. Medicity is also a functional network of healthcare providers and their business partners - a network that is a valuable resource for everyone who participates.

Who is using Medicity?

Medicity is open to any member of the healthcare community. We work with physician groups, hospitals, laboratories, imaging centers, health systems, and payors to get them connected to the key local partners and resources in their communities. Currently over 10,000 physicians and their associated staff in Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and Utah are using Medicity for secure access to laboratory results, eligibility checks, time-critical communications, and other forms of clinical data such as admissions, census, and clinical notes, among other things. Medicity establishes strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, medical supply companies, and other technology and service companies in order to provide the best in value and service to our customers.

How is Medicity different from all the other medical Web sites?

Medicity is the first solution that creates functional local online healthcare communities on a vendor-neutral platform. Our unique organization enrollment process builds an online community that is based upon your real-life business relationships, and helps you provide healthcare and do business more efficiently.

Medicity has solved the Internet healthcare security problem. MediTrust™ is our innovative solution that provides a high level of security (meeting expected HIPAA guidelines), ease of use, and the ability to access data from any computer with a connection to the Internet. Built upon digital certificate technology and public key encryption, MediTrust™ allows us to provide secure, single sign-on access to any application or data viewed within Medicity.

Unlike other Internet healthcare companies that make patient data available electronically, Medicity is not a proprietary technology platform. Medicity can accommodate any electronic healthcare resource—regardless of the technology or the vendor. This means Medicity is a flexible solution that doesn't lock you in to software or hardware that will become obsolete and won't communicate with other systems.

What is the cost of Medicity?

Medicity's basic services are free to its physician members. Medicity is interested in creating revenue for physician groups by establishing and fostering effective business relationships. Some premium services such as practice management, transcription and eligibility verification applications are offered through Medicity by outside vendors. Although Medicity's basic service is free, some premium services may require that a small fee is paid by the organization connecting with the physician group.

What has Medicity done to ensure the security of member and patient information?

Medicity takes the security of healthcare information very seriously. Our MediTrust™ solution is an innovative answer to Internet healthcare security, providing user authentication and data encryption that meets expected federal guidelines. MediTrust allows you to access Medicity securely from any computer with an Internet connection.

Will Medicity help my organization meet HIPAA regulations?

Medicity ensures that your access to patient data is protected by a level of security engineered to easily meet expected HIPAA regulations. Medicity's MediTrust security system verifies your identity when you log in (authentication), codes and decodes data for transmission (encryption), and provides a way to track access if a problem arises. MediTrust is a security solution that protects the user regardless of which application or data source is being accessed - effectively extending HIPAA-ready security to any application.

What hardware do I need to use Medicity?

Most modern computers connected to the Internet are adequate to access Medicity. Of course, faster connections will give better performance. The minimum requirements are:
• 166 MHZ processor
• 32 MB RAM
• 56K modem
• Internet Explorer 5.5
• Netscape Navigator 6.2

Will Medicity be around for the future of healthcare?

Medicity understands the healthcare industry. Over a decade of experience both delivering healthcare and building bridges between hospital systems and the Internet has given us an understanding of real-life healthcare that serves as a solid foundation for our company. We recognize that technology won't have a lasting impact if it doesn't help healthcare providers do their jobs more efficiently or more effectively. Medicity has proven to be a useful, convenient, and powerful tool for providers. Our strategy is to work with our customers to fully connect each local healthcare community - a strategy that is working. The Medicity Network is growing every day.

Does Medicity offer customer support?

Customer service is the top priority at Medicity. We offer e-mail and telephone support twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Just call 888.830.1022.

What are Medicity's plans for the future?

At Medicity we believe in making technology work for healthcare. We're pursuing technologies that hold the most potential benefit for improving the way that care is delivered. We are currently beta testing a handheld version of Medicity that incorporates a wireless order-entry module. We have an initiative to incorporate Bluetooth wireless technology in a way that would further improve the mobility and usefulness of the Medicity platform.

Can I access Medicity from home?

Medicity's MediTrust™ security solution "roams" with you—protecting your access from any computer with a connection to the Internet. Office, home, airport—all you need is one password.

What if my organization already has a website?

If your organization already has a site that distributes patient data or other valuable information, Medicity can bring that site onto our secure platform and make it available through a single Medicity login. The advantages are secure, controlled access, and the convenience of access to multiple resources with a single password. Medicity offers organizations the opportunity to create a branded introduction page (a "storefront") that preserves the corporate image and style within Medicity.