Preventable hospital readmissions burden our health system with excessive costs. The key to reducing readmissions is appropriate follow-up care for patients upon discharge. Many patients today do not receive necessary follow-up care for the simple reason that their primary care and specialist physicians are not made aware of the hospitalization.

Healthcare provider offices need a user-friendly, secure means of clinical data exchange, whether they have adopted health information technology extensively or not at all. Secure email systems that use the standardized, federally-sponsored Direct protocol meet this need by providing a common platform that can be used by providers throughout the country.

Physicians are keenly aware of the anti-quated billing practices prevalent in both the governmental and private sectors. In this era of applications for every purpose, the health care insurance industry lags behind, remaining stubbornly reliant on using the telephone for treatment pre-approvals, mailing proofs of treatment, and asking physicians to perform a myriad of other (easily automated) manual tasks,

Reflect for a moment on the last time your doctor referred you to a specialist. When you arrived, did the specialist say, “Sorry, I did not get your paperwork, can you tell me why you are you here?” Wouldn’t it be great if your specialist already had the health information she needed before you arrived,