What is the Health Passport?
The Health Passport is a patient-centered, internet-based health record. It makes a foster child’s information available to authorized providers and medical stakeholders, such as medical consenters and caseworkers. The data in the Health Passport is not a person’s complete medical record, but it does contain information on patient demographics, doctor visits for which claims have been paid or denied, allergies, lab test results, immunizations, and filled medications. There are also electronic Texas Health Steps, Dental, and Behavioral Health forms available through the Health Passport.
How do I get access to the Health Passport?
If you are a participating Superior STAR Health Provider and have access to the Provider Portal either at www.superiorhealthplan.com or www.cenpatico.com you will see a link for Health Passport on the Account Home page.
If you are a participating provider but have not registered with the website, you will need to create an account to be able to access the Provider Portal. If you are not a participating provider but are seeing a StarCare member for an approved or emergency reason, please contract our service coordinators at (866) 912-6283 to inquire if you qualify for access.
What is the advantage of using the Health Passport?
The Health Passport allows providers and medical stakeholders to view more patient information than has been available to them in the past. With this new information, providers have the opportunity to cut down on errors due to missing information and to reduce costs by eliminating duplicative tests, immunizations, and prescriptions. More specifically, providers can see more information about patients they thought they knew very well and they can see more info about new patients who they have never seen before. In addition to these benefits, the Health Passport is free.
How does the Health Passport differ from the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR)?
There are several major differences between the Health Passport and the EMR or EHR. The first is that the EMR is a patient’s COMPLETE medical record. The Health Passport doesn’t contain all the information that the EMR does.
Second, the EMR only contains comprehensive information from one healthcare provider or health care system. The Health Passport contains select information from many providers and facilities. The EMR must be maintained and updated by the providers who use it, but the Health Passport is maintained and updated by the STAR Health program. Most of the information in Health Passport can be viewed by a provider but cannot be changed. There are only a few areas that are interactive- Vital Signs, Allergies, and the Texas Health Steps, Dental, and Behavioral Health forms – where providers can add information into the Health Passport.
Whose information is included in the Health Passport?
Each foster child’s demographic information, and paid and denied medical, behavioral, pharmacy, dental, and vision claims. Other information includes lab results, as well as each foster child’s immunization history.
You say the Health Passport is free, but what is the real cost for providers?
In order to use the Health Passport, providers must have access to a computer with internet connectivity. There is also a small time investment initially in learning how to use it, but in the long run, the Health Passport should save providers time and money when trying to locate information on patients.
For providers who do not have access to the internet, they are able to acquire Health Passport information from Superior Service and Care coordinators.
How often is the information in the Health Passport updated?
- Demographics and contact information – Daily
- Medical & Behavioral Health claims – Daily
- Pharmacy claims – Daily
- Dental & Vision claims – Bi-weekly
- Quest Labs data – Weekly
- Immunizations (ImmTrac, State Registry) – Monthly
Is the data in the Health Passport driven by codes?
Some of the data in the Health Passport is claims information, and in the Claim Details information (Visits Module), the viewer can see specific CPT codes (procedure codes), HCPCS codes and J codes; however, the codes are also described using words to make viewing easy and beneficial for both clinical and non-clinical users.
How do you verify that the information being uploaded in the Health Passport is being placed on the correct person’s chart? Example: Two people with the same name or names that sound very similar.
A Master Person Index is used to match Members in the Health Passport. Members are matched to their records by their names as well as several other factors, such as date of birth and unique numeric identifiers.
Is the claims data based on both paid and denied claims?
Yes, the Health Passport will show claims that are on file. This means that it will show claims that have been paid or that have been denied. Medication claims are the exception. The Health Passport does not show denied medication claims, because the pharmacy ensures that the prescription will be paid by the insurance before the prescription is filled.
Will pending claims show up on the Health Passport?
No. The claim will not show up on the Health Passport until after it has been processed by the payer.
What is the source of patient demographic information?
The foster child’s demographic information will be updated daily by the Texas Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS).
If there are no allergies recorded for a patient, does it mean that they do not have any allergies?
No. The Health Passport allergy section is an interactive section that depends on provider input for updating. If “No allergy information has been documented for this person” is displaying in the Allergies section, the patient may have allergies, but no provider has documented them in the Health Passport yet. If “No Known Allergies” is displaying in the Allergies section, it means that a provider has documented that the patient has no allergies to their knowledge. We strongly encourage providers to take just a minute to add in any allergies they are aware of.
If a provider adds information to a patient’s chart, is the information available to all providers immediately?
Yes. The Allergies, Vital Signs, and Forms sections are interactive sections, and information input into any of these sections is updated immediately to the member’s Health Passport record.
Is the Fill Date in the Medications Claims section the date the prescription was written or the date the medication was dispensed?
The medication fill date is the date that the medication was dispensed.
How can the system help patients who have potential drug interactions?
The Medications section of the Health Passport will be helpful in preventing possible drug interactions. If providers are able to see what medications the patient is already taking, he or she can avoid prescribing drugs that could cause an interaction. This could be especially helpful in Emergency Departments where providers frequently don’t have all the information they need before giving treatment to the patient.
The Health Passport also contains an Allergies section. The patient’s providers enter the allergies and having this information is helpful to providers as they prescribe medications. When the patient has an allergy to a medication, an allergy icon will appear next to that prescription. The allergy icon is a red A with a box around it.
What does the Lab Results date and time mean?
The date and time are when the lab processes the test.
What are the requirements for a user to be able to use the Health Passport?
A user needs a computer, preferably a high speed internet connection, and authorization (username and password) to access the Health Passport. Authorization is granted to participating providers. To gain authorization, simply go to
www.superiorhealthplan.com/providerlogin (for physical health providers) or
www.cenpatico.com (for behavioral health providers) and register to use the Health Passport via the secure provider portal.
What if a user has dial-up internet, instead of high speed?
The Health Passport will work with dial-up internet, but it will be slower.
What is considered a “high speed connection”?
High speed internet access is a connection that is faster than dial-up– approximately 100 mbps (mega bits per second) or faster.
What are the recommended hardware requirements?
Recommended requirements for the PC are:
- 512MB RAM
- 512MB disk
- 1Ghz CPU
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (free to download)
- FireFox 2.0 or higher (free to download)
- Adobe Acrobat 6.0.2 or greater (a free download at www.adobe.com)
- Java 1.05 or greater (a free download)
- 1024 x 768 screen resolution
How fast is the system?
This depends on many factors:
- Type of hardware (ex. computer) and internet connection being used
- Size of the patient’s chart
- How many other users are currently using the system
- Version of Internet Explorer
The network the provider may be using could have some impact (ex. How many firewalls the provider must go through on their network).
Do you offer Health Passport training?
Yes. Superior HealthPlan offers several training options available. We have developed an online training video you can watch that will introduce you to the screens and functionality of the Health Passport. We recommend first-time users watch this video before accessing the Health Passport to become familiar with the pages, functionality and information available via the Health Passport – it’s great as a refresher too.
You can also view/download print documents of the training video for reference.
Click here to view our Health Passport training tools.
For more detailed training, contact your Provider Relations representative or call our Provider Services phone lines and we will be happy to schedule an in-office orientation for you and your team.
Superior HealthPlan