Med Group launches secure online messaging for patients Published June 12, 2013 By Linda Frost 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Patients seen at the Vance Medical Clinic can now communicate with their medical provider in a secure online service to manage their health care. The 71st Medical Group announced patient registration this week for MiCare, an Internet-based portal with a confidential secure messaging service. The system allows beneficiaries to easily interact with their military healthcare team, request medication refills, get lab results and request appointments. "MiCare has been shown to be a great time saver," said 2nd Lt. Tae Lee, the deputy TRICARE Operations and Patient Administration flight commander in the 71st Medical Support Squadron. "Patients no longer need to wait by the phone for someone to call back. Instead, you can securely message your health care provider team anytime and expect a message back within 72 hours, and in most cases, a lot sooner," he said. "On MiCare, patients can request an appointment with healthcare providers, get test results, request prescription refills, or ask the healthcare team medical questions via a secure electronic message that bypasses phone systems, voicemail, and phone tag with office staff," added Lee. According to Lee, patients can upload their military or civilian health documents and take ownership of their medical care. Providers can research a patient's health data, and also upload vital information for the patient to view. MiCare is designed to support patients and healthcare teams and is an Air Force-wide initiative, so once registered, a patient will remain in the system -- no matter where the Air Force takes them. The 71st MDG aims to enroll as many beneficiaries as possible into MiCare and utilize secure messaging as the primary form of communication between patients and their healthcare teams. To register, patients should visit the front desk at the Vance Clinic to initiate the face-to-face registration process. Each patient will need to show their military identification card and provide basic information such as name, social security number, birthday and email address. In order to protect one's healthcare privacy, all adults, including family members must register in person to participate in this secure messaging service. For pediatric patients, the parent must first complete their registration before they will be able to communicate with their child's pediatric team. An email will be sent for patients to finish enrollment and confidential messages may begin. For more information, visit http://www.afms.af.mil.