Method and apparatus for managing physician referrals

Abstract

Method and apparatus for managing the physician referral process, whereby a referring physician (e.g., a primary care provider) refers a patient to another physician (e.g., a specialist) for a particular medical procedure, analysis or care. An aggregator provides systems and methods available to physicians and their administrative staff (herein collectively referred to as physicians or doctors) to: book appointments on behalf of their patients online through a doctor directory and calendar function; filter available doctors by specialty, subspecialty, procedure, insurance participation and/or hospital network; transfer a patient's personal information, medical history and pre-selected insurance forms from one doctor's office to another's, electronically; transfer and upload relevant forms and paperwork via fax from one doctor's office to another; track referrals historically (over time) on a by-doctor or by-patient basis; facilitate referrals to and from doctors in a certain network or group.

1 . An online physician referral apparatus comprising:
 a computer apparatus for managing and storing a central managed database of physician profiles and scheduling information for physicians belonging to different provider groups, the database containing both physician profile data (PPD) and available appointment times for the physicians, wherein the PPD includes the physician's specialty, location and insurance or payment information; and   an online portal, accessible by computer to referring physicians over a network, for computer implemented filtering of the PPD and available appointment times on behalf of a patient of the referring physician, the portal including a user interface enabling the referring physician to select and book on-line a referral appointment on behalf of the patient with one of the physicians based on a filtered combination of the available appointment times and PPD.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the portal comprises a Web site and the user interface is accessible via a Web browser for filtering and selecting the one physician for the referral appointment.   
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the PPD further includes one or more of an affiliation of the physician with a provider group, insurance carrier, insurance plan, and procedures performed.   
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the database further includes the selected booked appointments and patient records relevant to such appointments.   
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the database includes an identifier for correlating patient and patient records.   
     
     
         6 . A method for online booking of physician referrals comprising:
 a referring physician accessing an online portal to a central managed database of physician profile data (PPD) and available appointment times for physicians belonging to different provider groups, the PPD including the physician's specialty, location and insurance or payment information;   the referring physician performing the following steps via the portal:
 filtering the PPD and available appointment times on behalf of a patient of the referring physician and selecting, on behalf of the patient, a referral appointment with one of the physicians based on a filtered combination of the available appointment times and PPD; 
 entering identification information for the patient; and 
 booking the selected appointment for the identified patient. 
   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the PPD further includes one or more of an affiliation of the physician with a provider group, insurance carrier, insurance plan, and procedures performed. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the filtering step is based on specialty and location and the portal displays a filtered listing of the physicians and their available appointment times. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein in response to the filtering, the portal displays a filtered listing of the physicians including their respective name, specialty, location, and insurance or payment information. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the referring physician further performs the step of tracking one or more selected appointments. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the tracking is performed based on one or more of the selected physician and the patient. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising the step of the referring physician transferring patient information to the selected physician. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising the step of the selected physician transferring patient information via the portal to the referring physician. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising the step of the referring physician reviewing on the portal a booking history of selected appointments. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the booking history can be filtered by the referring physician based upon one or more of the patient, selected physician, specialty and date. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the booking history comprises one or more of:
 appointment status;   clinical information;   patient identification information;   selected physician;   appointment time;   appointment history; and   further actions regarding the patient.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising the step of the referring physician establishing communication via the portal with one or more of the patient and the selected physician. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the communications include one or more of a reminder to the patient and providing patient information to the selected physician. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising the step of the referring physician reviewing a history of the communications on the portal. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising the steps of the portal displaying a description of the booked appointment and the referring physician printing the displayed description and providing the printed description to the patient. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the portal is a website. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein patient information can be uploaded by the referring physician to the portal. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the patient information can be uploaded by the selected physician to the portal. 
     
     
         24 . A computer readable storage medium with instructions to one or a plurality of computers for execution of the method of  claim 6 . 
     
     
         25 . A method for online booking of physician referrals comprising:
 a referring physician accessing an online portal to a central managed database of physician profile data (PPD) and available appointment times for physicians belonging to different provider groups, the PPD including the physician's specialty, location and insurance or payment information;   the referring physician performing the following steps via the portal:
 filtering the PPD on behalf of a patient of the referring physician to select, on behalf of the patient, one of the physicians based on the PPD; 
 entering identification information for the patient; and 
 notifying the selected physician electronically to arrange for a referral appointment. 
   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  wherein, following the notification, the referring physician transfers patient information to the selected physician via the portal. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising the step of the referring physician tracking one or more of the appointment and the patient's progress via the portal. 
     
     
         28 . A system for managing patient referrals comprising:
 an online portal, accessible by computer to a referring physician over a network, providing access to a central managed database of physician profile data (PPD) and available appointment times for physicians belonging to different provider groups;   the portal including a user interface enabling the referring physician to filter the PPD and available appointment times and select, on behalf of a patient of the referring physician one of the physicians for a referral appointment;   the portal providing one or more communication channels for communication between the referring physician and one or more of the patient and the selected physician for:
 initiating and tracking toward completion the referral appointment of the patient with the selected physician; and 
 transferring of patient information. 
   
     
     
         29 . A network based scheduling system, the system comprising:
 an aggregator managed database containing information relevant to referring physicians who periodically need to schedule referral appointments with other physicians;   a set of parameters associated with each of a plurality of physicians accepting referral appointments having available appointment times;   a central controller managing a referral appointment schedule for the aggregator, wherein the central controller operates via a network to:
 receive scheduling information via the network from the physicians accepting referral appointments; 
 supply available appointment times via the network to the referring physicians, with the supplied available appointment times determined by input received from the referring physician on behalf of a patient of the referring physician; 
 wherein the controller supplies an available appointment calendar via the network to the referring physician of the available appointment times, and wherein the referring physician can schedule an appointment via the network by selecting a desired appointment time. 
   
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the network is the Internet. 
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the aggregator provides a Web portal accessible to the physicians for receiving and supplying the scheduling and appointment times. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the controller synchronizes the available appointment times with the appointment calendars of the physicians accepting referral appointments. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the controller supplies a real time master schedule via the network. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the controller operates via the network to supply tracking information relevant to the selected appointment. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 34 , wherein the tracking information includes one or more of:
 patient contact information;   patient insurance information;   affiliation of the physician accepting referral appointments;   patient information supplied by the physician accepting referral appointments;   patient information supplied by the referral physician;   patient clinical information;   appointment history information;   physician notes concerning the patient