Prepare for MYIO Patient Portal FAQs

Appointments

If an appointment is requested, where do we accept the request? 

Go to your Dashboard under Action Items and click on "Appointment requests" to review and approve or cancel appointment requests. You may also go to Tools | Appointment Requests Queue directly from the left navigation menu. 

Will the upcoming appointments list in MYIO distinguish between a cancelled appointment and still active appointment? 

Distinguish between your active and cancelled appointments as "busy" and "free" time slots by adjusting your cancelled appointment category to be a "free" (vs busy) time. Learn more about appointment category settings for availability and scheduling here: Appointment Categories - Free/Busy Time.

Can patients cancel appointments via the MYIO portal themselves? 

We do not currently support the ability for patients to cancel their appointments in MYIO. This will be a future enhancement. 

How will patients see my availability to request appointment times? 

If enabled by your practice, the appointment request feature will only show patients available time slots on your calendar according to your availability. It will offer patients the ability to request times that are either blank slots or slots with appointments marked as "free" in your Appointment Category settings. 

How do we approve or deny appointment requests? 

Go to the Appointment requests queue on the Dashboard under Action Items or Tools | Appointment Requests Queue directly from the left navigation menu. This list will show pending appointment requests. You can approve or deny requests on this list. Learn more here: Appointment Requests Queue.

For providers that prefer scheduling their own patients, how do I turn off in MYIO the patient's ability to schedule themselves? 

You can enable or disable appointment requests at the practice level. If you want to enable appointment requests but have some providers who want to schedule patients themselves, they can communicate this preference with their patients or plan to schedule at the end of sessions. To turn on/off appointment requests, go to Persons & Institutions | Practice | Portal | 'Appointment Requests' checkbox.

Can patients use the portal for an appointment in the same day the portal has been set up? 

Yes, any and all appointments assigned to the patient will already be visible in the MYIO portal when the account is set up. 

Where does it indicate in-person vs telehealth appointment in MYIO? 

If it is a telehealth appointment using Integrated Telehealth, a small video icon will show in the top right-hand corner of the appointment. 

Billing

Is there a cost to send statements via the patient portal? 

There is no cost to send patient statements through the MYIO portal. 

Will statements be automatic now or does the practice have to send them manually? 

The process for sending statements to the portal will not change with the release of MYIO. You can allow the patient to see their total balance automatically. With statements you will still need to generate those manually and choose to send them to the portal. 

How do we allow the patient to see their total balance automatically on the portal? 

There is a setting via the patient's record within Persons & Institutions | Patients | Portal. Look for "Show balances in patient portal" - toggle that on to display the balance within the patient's MYIO portal. 

If the credit card information is not required, can it be added after the portal has been set up? 

Yes, you do not need to require it at onboarding. Patients can add it to the card manager at a later date. 

If credit card information is not required, can the patient skip adding the info? Or, will they not advance until it is filled in? 

If you mark credit card information as not required in your practice's MYIO portal settings, patients can skip entering credit card information during onboarding. 

Are patients able to change/remove cards from their portal? 

Yes. They can do so through the Card Manager within their MYIO account. 

Can statements be blocked out for some patients if we have different billing situations where we might not want a patient to see their statement? 

At the patient level, you can toggle on/off sending statements to their MYIO portal. Go to the patient's record in Persons & Institutions | Patients | Portal and look for the check box "Statements are allowed to be sent to the portal".

If we are not using Valant's credit card processing service, can we collect credit card information during MYIO onboarding and access Card Manager? 

You will need to set up Valant Integrated Credit Card Processing in order to access Card Manager and collect credit card information from patients during MYIO onboarding. If you do not have Integrated Credit Card Processing, the credit card questions will not appear in your patients' MYIO onboarding process. 

What does the practice need to do to allow the patient to pay their balance prior to their session? 

To use our paywall feature, you will need to enable Integrated Credit Card Processing in order to collect patient payments at appointment check in. To set up paywall, learn more on our knowledge base: Self-Check-In Prerequisite - Paywall.

Will the online payments tab also reflect payments that were run by the billing staff? 

Online Payments only reflect payments patients have made online in their MYIO account. 

Do we need to post payments that come in through the portal before they will be cleared in MYIO? 

You will need to apply the payment to a charge via the Apply Portal Payments tab under the Billing section. 

When are statements sent to patients' MYIO accounts? 

Statements are sent to the patient based on when your practice decides to generate a statement. 

Can patients email statements out of MYIO? 

Patients can download statements to their device and email the downloaded statement as needed via a personal email client. 

Can we remove the patient balance from the patients' portals as well as the option for them to pay through MYIO? 

Yes, there is a "Show Patient Balance" setting in the Persons & Institutions | Patients | Portal tab which can toggle the balance on/off. If the balance is not being displayed, then the Make a Payment functionality is also disabled. 

Where is the balance pulled from that shows in MYIO - does it match the practice generated statement? 

The balance is pulled from the Persons & Institutions | Patients | Balances tab. This should align with what is being displayed on patient statements. 

If someone pays their copay prior to being checked in through their MYIO portal how will admin know this has been done? 

On the Dashboard, the "Unapplied Portal Payments" link will show when there is an outstanding payment in the Apply Portal Payments tab under the Billing section. 

Clinical Forms

Can you still send forms to their MYIO accounts? 

Yes, you will still be able to send clinical forms to their MYIO portal accounts. Either the Valant eSignature forms (under Documents) or Measures (found within the patients' charts). 

Can patients still fill out measures through the app? Where will they find measures on the app? 

Yes, patients can fill out measures through the MYIO app. Measures will appear in the "Clinical Forms" section of patients' MYIO accounts. In Valant, there is no change to the process of sending outcome measures to patients. 

Are the steps the same on our end for loading new patient paperwork (such as measures) into the portal? 

Yes, the steps in Valant to send eSignature packets and measures to patients' MYIO account remain the same as before. 

eSignature

Do patients need to verify their email in order to see the esignature packet? 

Yes, the email address does still need to be verified to fill out an eSignature request BUT that is why we added the verification process to the onboarding flow! This will ensure that patients have a verified email associated with their account. 

Will you be able to add e-signature documents to a client portal prior to them activating their account with this change?

eSignature functionality will not change with the release of MYIO. However, Valant is planning to update eSignature in 2023 to allow you to queue up eSignature packets to send to the patient before the portal setup is complete. 

Is eSignature mobile-friendly for patients? 

The eSignature forms will be mobile friendly in the MYIO app and a few months ago we updated eSignature so that it displays more favorably in browsers on mobile devices. 

If my intake paperwork is not writable, how can I change that? 

Yes you can. Go to Documents | Practice Documents. Select "Upload" and choose "eSignature Eligible" in the Document Type field. Add your intake form and upload. See more details on our knowledge base: eSignature Templates.

For the Resources, can we put eSignature forms in there such as Release of Info? 

The Clinical Forms section is where eSignature forms will appear. You can use the Resources section as a place to share educational materials or practice documents patients can reference, but not for signature. 

Will the existing practice forms be available with MYIO or will we need to upload them again? 

Existing practice documents will be available and can be sent to MYIO through the existing eSignature workflow. 

Insurance

Will I need to manually enter the insurance information into the patient record from the demographic updates queue? 

For now, yes. You can copy and paste the group and member ID number into the patient record from the demographic updates before approving the change. We are looking at ways to make this more automatic in future updates. Because patients can enter insurance providers and information that does not match your Insurance Companies, automatically adding their insurance to the patient record could create insurance billing issues if incorrectly matched. 

How can a patient enter a second insurance, or add an insurance that will be active in the new year? 

We will be adding the ability to provide up to 3 insurance entries shortly after launch. 

Will MYIO only show patient the list of insurers that are defined within our practice? 

Yes, only insurance options that are already present in the Insurance Companies section of Valant IO will be presented to the patient. 

MYIO Onboarding 

If the practices misspells the patient name, can the patient correct it when they onboard? 

Yes! 

Can the practice customize the fields and text that appear in the MYIO onboarding process? 

At this time, ability to customize MYIO onboarding includes choosing whether to require insurance and/or credit card information. Further customization is under consideration in future enhancements! Note: credit card fields will only appear if the practice has Integrated Credit Card Processing enabled. 

Can the practice select what information we require someone fills out when they are starting the app? 

You will be able to choose whether to require insurance and/or credit card information. Some demographic fields are automatically required, such as address and contact information. 

Can the practice still fill out the information for a patient instead of them having to fill it in MYIO? 

Yes. You can enter as much information into the patient record as you would like before sending patients an invitation to MYIO. Any information you enter will appear in their applicable MYIO onboarding fields. For example, if you enter an address in the patient record prior to sending the MYIO invitation, that address will populate in their MYIO onboarding address field. 

How long does the average user take to receive the email, set up the account, and be able to be active on the portal? 

This largely depends on three things: 1) Whether the patient takes action immediately or waits to set up their account; 2) Whether you require insurance and or credit card information as part of onboarding and patients have that information readily available; 3) Whether you enter demographic details in patient records prior to sending them an invitation. Assuming patients take action immediately, you do require both insurance and credit card information, and patients have the information ready, and you enter the minimal amount of demographics prior to sending the invitation; patients can complete the process and be active on the portal in five minutes. 

Is gender identity going to be included? 

We will be adding gender identity and preferred pronouns to the onboarding process and demographics in a future release. 

MYIO Portal Invitations 

How does the patient get the access code and do they have to enter the dash? 

Patients will receive the access code with the invitation to set up their MYIO portal account (sent via email or text). The dash automatically populates in MYIO "Access Code" field. No need for them to add. 

Will the automated way to send MYIO portal invitations be turned on or off by default? 

The Automated MYIO Onboarding Message is turned off by default for your practice. To enable this feature and start sending MYIO portal invitations automatically to new patients, go to Tools | Patient Communications in Valant. 

Does inviting patients via email risk it ending up in Spam folder? 

It largely depends on the patients' email client. In most cases, it won't be sent to spam. But if you are concerned, two recommendations: 1. If clients want to receive invitations via email, ask them to add the email address to their contact list. 2. Send them the invite via text! All you need to do is enter their mobile number to have the invite sent via text. 

Can the text version of the portal invitation be sent to patients from both the manual and automated methods in Valant? 

Yes. The text invitation can be sent to patient(s) via Valant's "Invite to MYIO" or "Automated MYIO Onboarding Message" methods. 

Do I have to create a new portal for all my clients? 

Don't worry! All clients who currently have patient portal accounts will be able to log in with their current usernames and passwords. Account creation and onboarding only applies to NEW patients and patients who do not have portal accounts today. 

If you have the automatic invite set up for your practice, will it send invites via text or email? 

Whether the invitation goes out by text or email depends whether you select text or email in the new patient's "Patient Communications" preferences field in their record. If you add a phone number and select SMS, the patient will automatically receive a text invitation. If you add a phone number AND email, the system will prioritize the phone number and send a text invitation. If you only add email, the system will send the patient an invitation via email. 

With the automatic portal invite option ($0.9/message) - What are the steps that we take on Valant to have this happen? 

The Automated MYIO Onboarding message will send automatically send portal invitations to active patients who do not have an "Active" portal status and have an SMS or Email listed in the Patient Communications field on their patient record. Much like other Patient Communications' reminders and messages, you will need to enable the Automated MYIO Onboarding message in Tools | Patient Communications. You can elect to have the message only sent once by removing the number from the "Days before resend" field. Leave the number as is to have invitations resent automatically when a patient has not set up their portal account and their code has expired. Note that like additional appointment reminders, additional invitations sent to a patient are $.09 each. 

How do I send a manual MYIO invitation to a patient? 

Go to Persons & Institutions | Patients. Open the patient record and click on the "Portal" tab. (If creating a new patient, enter Name and Sex, click save - you will see the Portal tab appear). On the Portal tab, click on Setup Account | Invite to MYIO Portal. Select phone number or email to have a text or email invitation sent - enter patient's number or email address and click Send. 

Can I customize the email address from which MYIO portal invitations are sent?

Currently, there is no way to customize the email address sending the MYIO portal invitations. 

MYIO Product 

Are any emails going out to clients/patients about this change? 

We have published a notification in the current patient portal that MYIO will be coming on November 2. We also have a sample email practices can send to their patients/clients about the change. It's included as a handout on this webinar, it is published on the Knowledge Base, and we will proactively send it via email to practices as well. 

Where can clients upload photos of their ID and insurance card? 

Patients can send photos as attachments in Secure Messaging and can save those to directly to the patient chart. 

Will the browser interface be functional on mobile devices as well as desktops? 

Yes! 

If patients don't want to download an app, can they still use it via the web/a computer? 

Yes, patients can access MYIO on a desktop or mobile browser by navigating to your practice's MYIO portal URL! 

How do patients download the app? 

MYIO will be available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

Does the URL have a deadline for when it will no longer redirect? 

We have not set a deadline yet, since we want to give you time to update the link. We will send out a notification when a deadline is established. 

Will the URL on my dashboard change to the new URL? 

Yes. November 2, you will see your new MYIO portal URL under Persons & Institutions | Practice | Patient Portal - look under "Credentials" - you can copy that URL and update the link anywhere you have posted it previously (e.g., website, patient materials). 

Are we able to have current clients do a demographic update through MYIO? 

Yes! 

Is it time consuming for the practice to approve demographic updates? 

Reviewing demographic updates should not be a time-consuming task. When reviewing demographic updates through the dashboard Action Items panel or from Tools | Appointment Requests Queue, you only need to review the "Updated Values" column and confirm you accept the changes by clicking "Save." 

Has MYIO been tested to work out potential product issues before launching? 

Yes, we have had active beta testing happening with behavioral health practices currently using Valant. 

What does MYIO stand for? 

MYIO stands for My Improved Outcomes. 

If we haven't used the portal yet, will we be starting fresh with MYIO? 

Yes! 

Will providers be able to use the app on their own phones? 

At this time, the MYIO app is built only for patients to use to access their portal account. 

What will happen to current clients who have the old portal? Will they be able to use the phone app? 

Yes. Current and new patients can use the MYIO app and they can use the browser version of MYIO by navigating to your practice's MYIO portal URL. 

What do existing portal patients need to do to log into their portal account? 

Existing patients will use their current portal login information when logging in to MYIO! They will not need a new invitation, access code, or account. They can keep their existing account and login credentials. 

Will there be any downtime at launch? 

We are not anticipating any downtime with the change to MYIO on November 2. 

Notifications

Are push notifications coming for activities such as when patients receive a secure message? 

We plan to introduce push notifications in the MYIO app for things like new secure messages received soon - expect those updates in a future release. In the meantime, patients will receive email notifications when new messages and documents are available in their MYIO account. 

Are patients notified when they have new documents/resources? 

Yes, by default patients automatically receive email notifications sent to their portal email address when they receive new clinical forms and secure messages. Shortly after launch, we will be introducing push notifications that will deliver notifications to patients who download the MYIO app and enable app notifications. 

Is there a way to tell if the client saved their card through the portal and not a staff member? 

No, currently the system does not indicate whether the card was added by the patient or staff member. 

Will we receive a notification once the intake/other forms are complete? 

Any forms the patient is asked to complete will show up in the documents section of the patient's chart. 

Will I see pop up notifications when I receive a new secure message? 

You will not see any pop up notifications, but you will see notice of an unread secure message in your Dashboard under Action Items "Unread secure messages" 

Secure Messaging

Is it possible to set a default setting for the Secure Messaging for all new clients so that they have access to send messages to a shared inbox? 

Yes, it can be set up globally for shared inboxes! 

Will we be able to save existing messages to the chart once MYIO goes live? 

Yes, any existing messages can be saved to the chart 

Will existing messages in the portal still be accessible? 

Yes, we are migrating the last 180 days of messages. 

Will patients also be able to send attachments in Secure messages? 

Yes, with the same size limit as providers, 25 MB. 

How can we save secure messages to the patient's chart? 

Click the save to chart button on a message thread to save it and the attachments to the patient chart. Note: the save to chart function is only available on message/message threads with a patient. If an email/email thread between practice members needs to be saved to a patient chart, download the message and add to the chart as a document.

Will MYIO give the patient an option of who to select when composing a message? 

In MYIO, the patient will see whoever you have enabled them to message in a list of available recipients. 

Does secure messaging cost extra money? 

It is included with MYIO as part of all Premium and Power subscription plans. 

Can auto-replies be setup for personal inboxes and for shared inboxes? 

Yes! 

Does the provider have to sign off on everything that gets uploaded or can the staff sign off? 

When providers save messages and documents to the patient chart, they do not need to sign off. Messages and documents saved by staff to the patient chart need to initialed by a provider. 

Can secure messages cc parents and guardians? 

Since every patient can only have one portal account currently that is how Secure Messages creates an inbox. When MYIO is eventually available for guardians and guarantors we will update Secure messaging as well. 

Can clients upload documents or images to the MYIO portal from their phone? 

Yes! 

Can we set it up so that our admins have access to all messages sent by patients? 

Yes. You can choose to have patients send messages and requests to your admins instead of providers. You can also set up Shared Inboxes if messages and requests from a patient need to be handled by more than one admin. 

As a provider/staff, can I use Secure Messaging on my phone? 

Currently, Secure Messaging in Valant is not set up for mobile access, but is a planned future enhancement. 

Are there any storage size limits in Secure Messaging? 

There are no currently storage size limits for Secure Messaging. 

Will you add the ability to search messages? 

Yes, this will be future a enhancement. 

Is it possible to disable the automatic checking of the Enable Secure Messaging box? 

If it is off for users today it will not automatically turn on. When a new patient is added it would need to be disabled when creating their MYIO account. 

How do you create an All Staff inbox in secure messaging? 

You will want to create a Shared Inbox and add all staff members as participants. 

Can we set up branded email signatures? 

That is not currently available, but could be introduced as a future enhancement. 

Can we forward a message from a shared inbox to a person within the organization who is not part of that shared inbox? 

Yes! 

Settings

Will a history of demographic updates show in the patient chart? 

Yes, you can review updates made to demographics by navigating to the History tab in a patient record. Go to Persons & Institutions | Patients, select the patient record and look under the History tab for an audit of changes made. 

How do we turn on or off the Request an Appointment feature? 

Go to Persons & Institutions | Practice | Portal to enable or disable the appointment request settings for your practice. 

Is there a way to add a practice logo to help with branding on MYIO? 

MYIO will automatically populate your practice name in the top left corner of your patients' MYIO accounts. At this time, we do not offer a way to upload and populate the practice logo instead of the practice name. 

Does the written language change if English is not their first language? 

At this time, MYIO is offered in English. For foreign language translation, we recommend patients enable on-page translation through their browser. Chrome offers steps to do this here: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/173424?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop 

Are patients going to be able to request appointment to be rescheduled so vs now they request and I don't know they have an appt without going to double check? 

You can choose whether patients can request appointments in MYIO as well as opt for those requests to create a "placeholder appointment" in your calendar if you go to Persons & Institutions | Practice | Portal and adjust those settings. 

When do we receive the URL for MYIO to put on our website? 

Your new URL will appear on the morning of November 2. Go to Persons & Institutions | Practice | Portal to see your new link on that day. 

If we have certain features disabled as of now, will these features remain disabled once MYIO is active? 

Yes. Valant will not toggle on any additional features without your practice's permission. 

Will all the new patients that have set up their portals show up on our dashboard so we will then know we need to call and make them an appointment? 

You can view all patients with an active portal status by going to Persons & Institutions | Patients. Click on the filter icon next to "Portal Status" and select the "Active" status then click OK. 

We have a lot of clients with low literacy issues. We often have to help clients with filling out the portal. Will we still be able to do this? 

You can certainly walk patients with low literacy through the steps to set up their MYIO account. In those cases, it may be better to manually enter the demographic details in their patient record first before inviting the patient to set up their MYIO account. This way, their information will automatically populate during the onboarding process. 

Can we exclude fields such as SSN from the demographics collected from patients? 

SSN is not a required field. If a patient does enter that information in their demographic profile, you can delete it before approving the demographic updates. Additional customization to MYIO onboarding will be a future enhancement. 

What is the structure of our new MYIO portal URL? 

Your practice's MYIO URL will follow this structure: https://valant.io/myio/[Practice ID] 

How will we be able to test MYIO's features with our practice settings? 

You can set up a demo patient record and test MYIO that way before rolling it out to new patients. 

Can a person use their chosen name to set up their profile even if their dead name is still used for insurance purposes? 

Yes, preferred name is used in place of the first name whenever possible. 

In working with children/adolescents with phones - can the minor have a separate login to use the MYIO for assessment prompts or do they have to use same login credentials with MYIO to complete assessments that were created for the parent/guardian? 

We will be adding Guarantor/Guardian functionality post launch. This will allow parents to view certain information based on the patient's situation. For the time being, one workaround is to create a separate patient record for the parent or guardian to send and receive messages to both that will be inaccessible to the other. 

Can a person change the email they choose to set up using the portal later on after initially setting up and using their account? 

Yes, the patient can change the email any time after the initial onboarding via the My Account section of MYIO. 

Can the verbiage in that initial set up invitation email be customized? 

Not at this time. We want to ensure that all the necessary information is provided to the patient. 

If a patient forgets their verification question answers, is there a way to reset those without having them set up a new portal account? 

Yes, we will be adding this functionality shortly after launch. 

Can I use MYIO but turn off Secure Messaging for my practice? 

Yes, Secure Messaging can be turned on/off separately from the MYIO portal. (Alternatively, you cannot use Secure Messaging with patients unless you use MYIO.) To disable Secure Messaging for your practice, contact our support team. 

If we don't use Valant for telehealth they won't have the option to check in for their appointment correct? Or how does that work? We don't want to cause patients any confusion. 

They can still check in if the "Appointment Self Check-In" setting is enabled in Persons & Institutions | Practice | Patient Portal 

Subscription

How do we know what plan we have and how can we know if MYIO and Secure Messaging will be included? 

If you currently have the patient portal MYIO will simply replace it. MYIO and Secure Messaging are included in the Premium and Power subscription plans. Generally if you are unsure of your level of subscription or which features are included please reach out to subscription@valant.com.