Feature
A certified patient portal, included free with your EHR
A certified patient portal for scheduling, bill pay, records, and secure messaging — included free with Criterions EHR, not billed as a separate module.
Patient logs into the portal from any device
Views results, pays a bill, or sends a message
Front desk sees it resolved — no call taken
Included free with the EHR
No additional license cost — most of this category meters portal access as a separate line item.
Fewer routine calls to the front desk
Patients check results, pay bills, and message the practice themselves instead of calling for each one.
Meets a real ONC requirement
Certified EHRs are required to give patients electronic access to their information — the portal is how Criterions meets that.
Patients expect the same self-service from their doctor's office that they get everywhere else — see the result, pay the bill, ask the question, book the follow-up.
The Criterions patient portal is included free with Criterions EHR, so meeting that expectation doesn't arrive as a separate line item on your invoice, which is how most of this category prices it.
Patient Self-Service
What patients can actually do without calling your office
Patients can view their records and results, request or book appointments, pay a bill, and message the practice securely — the four things that otherwise account for most of the calls your front desk fields in a day.
The portal earns its keep on call volume long before it earns it on patient satisfaction. Every result a patient looks up themselves is a call somebody didn't have to take.
Certified, and part of what ONC certification requires
Patient access isn't an optional nicety — certified EHRs are required to give patients electronic access to their health information, and the Criterions portal is part of how Criterions EHR meets that. Criterions EHR 4.0 Complete EHR Ambulatory is ONC Health IT certified (Certificate No. 15.04.04.2705.Crit.04.00.1.191111, certified 03/21/2014). Some certified functionality — such as online patient service, direct messaging, or ePrescribing — may require ongoing monthly costs to support.
The portal comes with Criterions EHR at no additional license cost. In a category where patient access is routinely metered and billed per provider or per patient, that's the straightforward version — and it's consistent with how the rest of the platform is priced: you license what you use, and you aren't charged twice for the thing certification already requires.
Frequently asked questions
Is the patient portal really included free?+
The portal is included with Criterions EHR at no additional license cost. As noted in our certification disclosure, some certified functionality — including online patient service — may require ongoing monthly costs to support.
What can patients do in the portal?+
View records and results, request or schedule appointments, pay bills, and send secure messages to the practice.
Do I need Criterions EHR to offer the patient portal?+
Yes — the portal is tied to the clinical chart, so it's available with Criterions EHR.
Your front desk is answering questions a portal answers for free
Result lookups, balance questions, appointment changes, "can you resend that" — those calls have a real cost measured in front-desk hours, and they're the calls a portal absorbs without anyone deciding to absorb them. It's included with Criterions EHR at no additional license cost, so this isn't a module you build a business case for — it comes with the chart.
Over 250 practices and billing companies run on Criterions. A demo is the fastest way to see the portal from the patient's side as well as yours.