Patient Engagement Ecosystem 2023
An Update on Vendor-Reported Capabilities

eVideon, pCare, RevSpring, Upfront, and Health Catalyst Report Largest Growth in Capabilities since 2021 

Most vendors in this study say they have expanded their number of capabilities since 2021. However, eVideon, pCare, RevSpring, Upfront, and Health Catalyst stand out for having the largest increases in their reported capabilities over the past two years. Further, KLAS performance data shows that the majority of these five vendors are rated above the market average for delivery of new technology (Health Catalyst is the exception). eVideon, whose focus is interactive patient technology, has grown their Vibe Health platform (announced in February 2022) by adding capabilities around prescription refill requests, communication, risk management, care management, the triage/symptom checker, and more. pCare has built upon their interactive patient solution by adding capabilities—e.g., care plan adherence, patient-reported outcomes, and care management tools—to engage patients’ family members, communicate with patients before their visit, and follow up with patients post-visit. RevSpring has combined their former Talksoft product with their patient financial engagement capabilities and added key platform capabilities like self-scheduling, preregistration and check-in, and previsit education. They have also focused on the patient experience with capabilities such as triage/symptom checker and a virtual waiting room. Upfront—who acquired PatientBond in August 2022—has augmented their patient communication capabilities primarily with new financial tools such as online bill pay, text to pay, automated self-service payment plans, and billing details. The vendor also added capabilities for provider search, prescription refill requests, and reputation management. Health Catalyst (who focuses on AI and value-based care) acquired Twistle in June 2021 and has built upon the patient-driven care management capabilities, adding tools for care-setting guidance, prescription refill requests, shared decision-making, longitudinal care planning, and reputation management and advertising.

KLAS Emerging Solutions reports:
Carium, Get Well, Gozio, GYANT, HealthTalk A.I., Healthwise, Notable, Orbita, rater8, Rhinogram, SeamlessMD, SocialClimb, Upfront,

Epic Continues to Lead in Capability Breadth among Health System–Focused Vendors; Salesforce and Get Well Also Offer Broad Solutions

Compared to other types of healthcare organizations, health systems are the most likely to have moved beyond basic patient engagement use cases and deepened their ability to engage with patients. Thus, they are the primary customer type of many of the vendors in this study. Among the most feature-rich patient portals, Epic MyChart continues to be a leader in terms of capability breadth and is supported by additional engagement tools, including MyChart Bedside, Cheers (additional campaign features announced in 2022), and patient financial engagement capabilities that Epic has continued to develop.

Get Well focuses on patient-driven care management and has continued to expand their capabilities that follow the full patient journey, including preparing for a procedure, engaging during the hospital stay, and recovering at home. The vendor’s acquisitions of Loop and Docent Health have augmented their self-developed capabilities. Salesforce Health Cloud builds on the vendor’s CRM capabilities to help organizations address specific use cases and challenges along the patient journey, such as enabling patient access to care. Currently, customers must partner with outside vendors for education and financial experience capabilities.

Andor Health (mostly RPM) and Amwell (mostly telehealth) both offer broad patient engagement capabilities built around their core offerings—see the 2023 Telehealth/RPM Ecosystem report for more details on these vendors.

athenahealth Again One of the Broadest Ambulatory-Focused Vendors; Newly Measured Rhinogram and HealthTalk A.I. Also Report Broad Capabilities

Most patients’ healthcare touchpoints take place largely in an ambulatory setting, where organizations rely on patient portals and other tools to deliver information to patients, help patients communicate with the organization, and empower patients with capabilities such as self-scheduling and bill pay. Among the vendors who focus on ambulatory organizations, EMR vendor athenahealth continues to be a leader in the number and type of capabilities offered. athenaCommunicator provides nearly all platform capabilities, and athenahealth continues to enhance the scheduling, check-in, and patient outreach capabilities. Rhinogram, a newer entrant to the market, offers a solution centered on patient communication that is intended to engage patients in ways that offload work from front office staff. Rhinogram claims all 12 platform capabilities, and early feedback from customers suggests that the solution drives desired outcomes. Another recent market entrant, HealthTalk A.I., focuses on conversational AI and also claims to offer a full suite of platform capabilities. Their digital front door and automated scheduling assistant are intended to improve patient access to care, while their automated patient outreach for things such as care campaigns can help improve operational efficiency.

Vendors Not Yet Measured in Patient Engagement

On KLAS’ radar for patient engagement, additional vendors shared information about their customer bases, capabilities, and customer adoption; to date, KLAS does not yet have enough customer feedback on these vendors to show their performance in patient engagement. As KLAS continues our research efforts, vendor-reported capabilities will be further validated.

KLAS Emerging Solutions reports:
blockit, Combinaut (Sparkle Health), DocASAP, Force Therapeutics, HealthMark Group, Steer Health, Thundercloud, Uber Health, Xealth,

Industry Progress

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of many digital health capabilities. As the industry emerges from that rapid growth period, organizations are looking for solutions to help them with current challenges such as staff turnover and burnout, razor-thin or negative financial margins, and increased consumer demands. Patients increasingly want to be empowered in their care journey; as a result, vendors continue developing and providers continue investing in capabilities like self-scheduling and self-registration. Other capabilities like online bill pay and prescription refill requests have also received significant development in the past two years.

Key Platform Capabilities

KLAS intends to soon publish our Patient Engagement Ecosystem webpage, where readers can learn more about the vendors and capabilities listed throughout the report.

Patient Engagement Capabilities Index

About This Report

This study is designed to give payer and provider organizations a clear picture of what capabilities vendors offer to meet their core patient engagement needs. Most data in this study comes from vendor-reported information.

A limited amount of KLAS performance data is also shared. Interviews were conducted over the last 18 months using KLAS’ standard quantitative evaluation for healthcare software, which is composed of 16 numeric ratings questions and 4 yes/no questions, all weighted equally. Combined, the ratings for these questions make up the overall performance score, which is measured on a 100-point scale.

A vendor’s sample size for performance data may not reach KLAS’ required threshold of 15 unique respondents; when a vendor’s sample size is less than 15, their score is marked with an asterisk (*) or otherwise designated as “limited data.” If the sample size is less than 6, no score is shown. Note that when a vendor has a low number of reporting sites, the possibility exists for KLAS scores to change significantly as new surveys are collected.

Note: This report used a data collection window of 18 months to better represent the vendors on which KLAS has collected data. KLAS’ 2023 Telehealth/RPM Ecosystem report, which includes some of the same vendors found here, used a data window of 12 months.