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As a respected industry leader, MaxMD’s Direct mdEmail® is the right solution for any consumer or patient looking to securely communicate with their care providers using Direct Secure Messaging.
Direct mdEmail® is a simple application that looks and acts like regular email. It can be used on the internet, mobile devices, or added to email applications such as Microsoft Outlook. Direct mdEmail® meets the highest national standards for ensuring your protected health information remains private and can only be viewed by those you choose to communicate with
Registration can be completed in minutes using MaxMD’s secure online form allowing for fast access to a custom Direct Address so that you can receive a copy of your medical record. Your personal Direct Address will be formatted similar to yourname@patient.directmessaging.net.
Features of Direct mdEmail® include alerts sent to your primary email address notifying you of a new Direct Message in your inbox and a one-click medical record viewer to easily view or print a copy of your medical record. MaxMD provides seamless coordination with the entire DirectTrust network and its participants which includes over 1 million healthcare providers.
MaxMD was one of the first to earn full accreditation to provide Direct Messaging services and currently leads numerous workgroups which establish the policy standards for Direct nationwide. You can be at ease knowing your data is safe and you are only communicating with those who you trust.
If you are interested in learning more about Direct Secure Messaging please click
What is Direct mdEmail® or Direct Secure Messaging?
Direct mdEmail® is a powerful secure means to communicate with healthcare organizations and providers from virtually every segment of the healthcare industry. Direct mdEmail® is our product name for Direct Secure Messaging. To the casual user Direct mdEmail® looks and operates very much like electronic mail however Direct Secure Messaging is much more than email. Direct Secure Messaging was developed to allow Electronic Medical Record Companies to share copies of a patient’s medical records. By design it is a versatile technology that enables multiple care coordination capabilities in a single application.
To meet the strict privacy regulations that govern all healthcare organizations and their business associates a single set of National Policies and Technical Security requirements were established to allow a seamless exchange between different Healthcare Organizations and Healthcare Technology Applications. This exchange is facilitated by vendors called HISPs or Health Information Service Providers. Electronic Medical Record Companies as well as other healthcare organizations that collect or have a need to exchange electronic health information use Direct Secure Messaging to exchange data to coordinate care.
These national standards ensure that anyone issued a Direct Address must provide proof of their identity and any information that is exchanged is encrypted to prevent any unauthorized access to protected health information as information travels over the internet.
Organizations like Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Veterans Administration (VA), Indian Health Services (HIS), other Agencies of the government, and tens of thousands of private healthcare organizations have adopted Direct Secure Messaging to move from exchanging information by paper or other unsecure means to this secure, cost-effective and green technology.
To better explain normal email, services like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail or email commonly offered by Internet Service Providers and business are unencrypted and can be read by any servers set up to monitors traffic over the internet. Regular email consists of address information and a message body much like a Postcard would be sent through the U.S. Mail. Direct Secure Messaging services like MaxMD’s Direct mdEmail® is encrypted by a unique certificate issued to the sender and can only be decrypted by the organization or person to who the sender has intended to see their message. To complete the analogy Direct Secure Messaging is analogous to Registered Mail.
Why is encryption Important?
Personal or Protected Health Information is more valuable than personally identifiable information because it enables bad actors to defraud Insurance Companies like Medicare and Medicaid as well as private health insurance companies if the information falls into the wrong hands. Fraud raises the cost of services for everyone. Perhaps most importantly personal health information is intensely private information that should only be shared between a patient and their care providers.
How can I use Direct mdEmail as a Patient?
Direct Secure Messaging is a very versatile technology. A Patient could request a copy of their medical record that is stored in an Electronic Medical Record system that is used by their Primary Care Physician or a copy of their Discharge Summary after leaving a hospital. Electronic Medical records are technically a structured Data File that contains all the information collected by your providers of care during your treatment. Electronic Medical Records have largely replaced paper records.
Every Patient has the right by law to request a copy of their medical record and every provider must comply. Using Direct Secure Messaging provides patients with access to the secure national provider network that adheres to these same technical standards.
Unlike many previously designed secure email systems which do not allow for information exchange between competing systems or vendors, Direct Secure Messaging is a nationally defined standard that places no requirement on the user for encryption , decryption or handling of encryption keys.
Direct Secure Messaging can carry any type of payload and everything is encrypted from end to end. Examples of use cases are receiving copies of your medical records, lab reports, images, or just using it to respond to care instructions between a patient and a provider. Technically this data can be in different formats like a pdf, xml, CCD, CDA, wave file, or images. There are many use cases that are being developed to leverage the Direct Protocol and to empower patients to interact with Providers to better manage their own healthcare.
Direct Secure Messaging is an elegant, straightforward scalable technology that can be accessed from any platform such as a smartphone, a tablet, a desktop computer, even a desktop application like Outlook or Thunderbird when properly configured.
How do I set up a Direct mdEmail Account?
As an EHNAC Accredited Health Information Service Provider, Registration Authority (RA) and Certificate Authority (CA) setting up an address is an easy fully automated process. MaxMD will proof each user, issue their Direct Certificate and provision their Direct Address in a simple straight forward process.
How does data exchange work?
A patient would inform their Physician or any Healthcare Organization that is part of the DirectTrust Network of their Direct Address and request that they send a copy of their medical records. If your provider does not have a Direct Address yet it is likely he or she likely soon will. Your Direct Address will be formatted similar to yourname@patient.directmessaging.net
Who is a trusted individual?
Direct Secure Messaging is built upon a “trusted network” where all Users have been identity proofed to the same standard. This ensures that all users know who is actually sending and receiving the message. Identity proofing which results in a “trusted individual” makes Direct Messaging spam-proof and spoof-proof because there is a valid electronic audit trail of every Direct Message. A Direct Address uniquely identifies an individual in the health care system. The individual can be a patient or a provider such as a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, physical therapist, dentist or staff member of a provider such as a medical assistant, nurse, administrator, scheduler, receptionist, or biller. Hosted Direct mdEmail® can be used to safely and securely exchange between medical providers and patients.
FAQ
Can I exchange data with individuals who don’t have Hosted Direct mdEmail® from MaxMD?
Yes, as long as the individual has a Direct Address provided by any EHNAC Accredited HISP. A list of Accredited HISP vendors with which MaxMD can seamlessly exchange data with can be found here. Because the Direct Protocol is a national standard all Accredited HISPs and their clients can exchange data freely. This is one aspect of the term “interoperability”.
Can I exchange data with providers who don’t use my EHR?
Yes, no matter the EHR system your provider has, so long as they have a Direct Address provided by an EHNAC Accredited HISP, you will be able to exchange data with them and receive your medical record as generated by any EHR systems that has been Meaningful Use Certified.
Can I exchange medical records if I don’t have an EHR system?
Yes, you do not have to have an EHR to use Direct Secure Messaging to exchange medical records. You can use Hosted Direct mdEmail® to exchange records with any individual or provider who has a Direct Address from an EHNAC Accredited HISP.
Is MaxMD a part of a nationwide trust network?
Yes, MaxMD is an EHNAC Accredited HISP, RA, and CA and all MaxMD Direct Certificates are included in the DirectTrust’s Accredited Trust Bundle. This Trust Bundle is a group of accredited entities who have met the federated standards for providing Direct Secure Messaging and enabling seamless data exchange. This means that users of Hosted Direct mdEmail® can exchange medical records with a growing community of tens of thousands of health care organizations, using over 300 certified EHRs, and more than 1.2 million providers located throughout the United States who are all serviced by these accredited HISPs. Click here to link to the DirectTrust Accredited HISPs.
What kind of data content can be exchanged using Direct Secure Messaging?
Any message or file that can be attached to a Direct Message can be securely exchanged using Hosted Direct mdEmail®. The content of Direct Messages can include Protected Health Information (PHI) Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, healthcare providers and their business associates are required to protect the privacy of the patient’s identifiable health information in any format. The Privacy Rule defines "protected health information (PHI)" as:
Name
Address
Date of Birth
Social Security Number
Past, present or future physical or mental health or condition such as:
Patient Demographics
Medications / Prescriptions
Allergies
Laboratory Orders and Results
Immunizations / Vaccinations
Evaluation and Management Encounters
X-ray, MRI’s and other Radiological Images and Reports
Physical Therapy Encounters for Certification and Re-Certification
