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Healinx-A Healthy Solution
By Jill Banks

Have you ever ... taken hours out of your day for a doctor's appointment, only to find that you could have gotten the information you needed with a simple phone call? Played phone tag just to get a prescription renewed? Had to waste time at a face-to-face appointment with your primary care provider to get a referral to a specialist? Dealing with the health-care system can be frustrating! But a new and growing Internet service called Healinx.com promises to make this part of your life simpler by giving you back some time and helping you take charge of your medical interactions--all for free. Now that's a healthy solution!

Healinx opened its e-communication doors between doctors and patients in late 1999 with a variety of free services. On this site patients can request appointments, referrals and prescription renewals. They can build their own medical profiles online, saving themselves filling out multiple forms. Their doctors can easily review these records (Since privacy is a primary rule of the site, the patient controls who sees their medical records.) In addition, online consultations are available for a fee. Doctors set their own fees which are generally about the same as a co-pay.

A major disadvantage of the site is the small number of doctors currently signed up: only 25,000 nationwide. But, by the end of 2000, membership is projected to be 50,000. This giant leap will take place primarily through partnerships with insurance companies. While I was not successful locating either of my doctors on the site, I could enter their names as providers I would like to see using this service. I going to bookmark this site-www.healinx.com--and check back regularly in the hopes that the doctors I use will be in the network soon. I'm ready for the simple life when it comes to healthcare providers.