The patient portal

Tour the portal: what your patients see

The patient portal is the patient-facing companion to Hero EMR — a separate site where your patients book and manage visits, message the care team, pay bills, complete pre-visit paperwork, and read their records. It carries your practice’s logo, colors, and name (set under Portal branding), so to patients it looks like your portal. On wide screens the sections run across a top bar. On phones, tablets and small laptops a bottom tab bar holds up to five: Home, Visits (Appointments), Messages, Records (Health Record) and Billing; Letters & Forms moves into the account menu when it doesn’t fit. The account menu (the round button with the account holder’s initials) shows who is signed in, then Profile, Notifications, Sharing & caregivers, Connected apps (only when your practice offers app connections), Sign out and Sign out everywhere.

1. Home greets and orients. The patient lands on Welcome back, and their first name (on a child’s record, “Sofia’s care”), with one status line under it, for example “You have 2 things to do.”, “Nothing to do before your visit tomorrow.” or “Nothing to do right now.” One row of buttons follows: Schedule appointment (when online scheduling is on), Message care team (opens a new message) and Medications & allergies. Once a visit is booked, Your next visit shows the day and time in your practice’s time zone (with the patient’s local time when it differs), the provider, the location or Video visit, a Check in button inside your check-in window (or the join button for a video visit), View appointment, and a Before your visit list marked Required or Optional.
2. One to-do list. Everything else waiting sits in one To do list: forms from your care team (Review and sign), questionnaires (Start, with the due date and about how long it takes), and finishing the profile. It shows three rows, then Show all. A past-due balance adds a line with Pay. Follow-up visits your clinicians asked for appear as one Follow-ups to book row that opens to each recommendation with a Book button. Later visits sit under Also coming up.
3. Profile holds the patient’s own record-keeping. Profile is in the account menu. It is tabbed: Personal Info, Allergies, Medications, Health History, Pharmacy, Guarantor, Insurance, Setup and Settings. Three of those come and go: Health History shows only when your practice collects a history category this patient is allowed to answer, Insurance only when insurance self-service is enabled, and Setup only while an orientation step is unfinished. Billing is no longer a Profile tab — it has its own page (see Portal payments), and old ?tab=billing links redirect there. Personal Info autosaves as the patient types; the address ZIP code is validated on the spot — both here and during registration, only a 5-digit ZIP or 9-digit ZIP+4 is accepted (typos like a 4-digit ZIP are flagged immediately), which keeps the chart address clean enough to bill from. On first sign-in an orientation wizard walks up to seven setup steps — allergies, medications, health history, pharmacy, guarantor, insurance, billing — with health history, insurance, and billing dropping out when your practice hasn’t enabled them; if the patient skips it, Home shows a Complete your patient profile reminder with a Go to profile button — handy when you ask a patient to finish intake before a visit.
4. One login can manage a family. A single account can hold multiple patient profiles; when there’s more than one, a switcher appears in the header (on narrow phones, a Viewing row under it) listing first names, such as Maria (you) and Sofia. Under Profile Settings, a Family section offers Add Myself and Add Child (which creates a minor profile). On a child’s record Home reads “Sofia’s care”; someone helping another adult sees a Helping … chip that opens Your access. Adults can also let family or a caregiver help with their own portal — see Family & caregiver access.

How a patient gets registered

Patients can receive an invitation from authorized staff in Patient Registration, or begin registration through the practice’s enabled new-patient website booking flow. The staff-side mechanics (status pills, the invite dialog, delivery channels, teen account modes) are documented in Patient registration; this section follows what the patient experiences from the moment the link arrives.

1. The link arrives. The patient receives the signup link by email, by text, or directly from your staff — the invite dialog can generate a Portal signup link with a Copy button for handing over in person. Invitations expire in 30 days; after that, staff use Resend invite.
2. They verify identity on Complete Signup. The link opens the portal’s signup page. A new patient can correct First name and Last name; a link to an existing chart keeps its name read-only. They confirm their Date of Birth, then create credentials — an email and password, or Continue with Google / Continue with Apple.
3. They walk the registration steps. Registration collects insurance and personal details (teen flows add a parent step), then a review, and lands on a success screen showing their Medical Record Number and a What’s Next? list. From there the orientation wizard in the portal tour takes over.
4. Abandoned signups can resume. A patient who created a login but stopped partway is routed to a resume-registration screen on their next sign-in — or staff can simply resend the invite.

Passwords, passkeys, and verification codes

Portal sign-in (Welcome Back — “Sign in to access …” with your practice’s name) is Email Address + Password + Sign In, with Continue with Google and Continue with Apple as alternatives. Depending on how your practice’s portal is configured, patients may also see passkey sign-in and a second-step verification code. While a sign-in runs, the page stays put and shows a Signing you in panel with its steps (for a password: Checking your password, Securing your account, Opening your portal); after a few seconds it adds “Still working. A slow connection can take a little longer.” Knowing the patient’s-eye view here is what lets your front desk troubleshoot “I can’t log in” calls quickly.

1. Password recovery is self-service. The Forgot your password? link on the login page emails the patient a reset link, sent to the email their portal sign-in uses (which can differ from the chart email). Staff never see or set a patient’s password, but they can email a link to set one with Send sign-in link, and fix a wrong sign-in email with Change email (Change a patient’s sign-in email).
2. Passkeys, where enabled. On practices with passkeys enabled, returning patients get an automatic prompt (Checking for your passkey… or start typing to sign in another way.) plus a manual Sign in with passkey button. Patients add or remove passkeys under Profile Settings → Passkeys (“Sign in faster with your face, fingerprint, or device PIN”), and, once profile setup is done, the account holder’s own Home offers Set up now or Not now (“You can add a passkey any time in Profile > Settings.”). Browsers without passkey support show a “not supported” notice — don’t promise passkeys on every device.
3. Verification codes, where required. Practices can require a second step at sign-in: the patient sees Check Your Email or Check Your Phone, enters a 6-digit Verification Code, and taps Verify and Continue. Helpers include Resend Code, Text me a code instead / Email me a code instead, and Use a Different Account. Where trusted devices are enabled, a checkbox offers: Trust this browser on this portal so you do not need an email code on every sign-in.
4. Text-message codes are the patient’s choice. Under Profile Settings → Cell phone verification, the patient taps Add phone, verifies it with Send code → Verify, and controls the toggle Text me a code when I sign in (you can turn this off anytime). SMS verification is patient opt-in — never forced by the practice. Verified numbers list masked, with a Remove number action.
5. Signing out: this device or everywhere. Sign out (account menu, or Sign Out in Profile Settings) ends the sign-in on this device only; the patient stays signed in on their other phones and computers. Sign out everywhere (“Also signs you out on your other phones and computers.”) ends them all. Other open portal tabs of that account lock at once, and the patient always lands on your practice’s own sign-in page, with a calm note saying why: “You were signed out in another tab.”, “… because this sign-in was ended on another device.”, “… because someone else signed in on this browser.” or “You were signed out after 30 minutes with no activity.”
6. Idle sign-out. The portal signs patients out after a stretch with no activity: 30 minutes unless your practice changes it. One minute before, Still there? warns “To protect your health information, you’ll be signed out in … seconds.” with Sign out now and Stay signed in. Activity in any of the patient’s portal tabs counts, and closing the browser doesn’t restart the clock. A practice administrator sets the time in Admin → Security, Sign patients out of the portal after inactivity (5 minutes to 3 hours); patients already signed in get the new time the next time they open the portal.
7. A reply being typed isn’t lost. If a patient is typing a reply when their sign-in ends without them choosing to sign out (for example Sign out everywhere on another device), the sign-in page says “Your reply wasn’t sent. Sign in to send it.” and, after signing in, the conversation shows the reply ready to send (attachments must be added again). Choosing Sign out, an idle sign-out, or someone else signing in on that browser discards it.

How patients book, change, and join appointments

Portal booking is self-service direct booking — when a patient confirms a slot, the visit is created on the physician’s calendar immediately, marked as coming from the patient portal. There is no approval step and no request queue to work. Confirmation email and your reminder policies fire automatically (see Notifications).

1. Pick the visit, provider, and time. From Home’s Schedule appointment (or Schedule visit on the Appointments page), the patient toggles In-office visit or Remote visit, picks a Physician — grouped Seen before vs Other physicians — a Location for office visits, and a slot under Available Times on a month calendar. Only physicians and visit types you’ve enabled for online booking appear; a physician with no virtual offerings shows “This physician does not currently offer virtual visits.” A booking link your staff sent with Ask the patient to book opens this page with the provider and visit type already chosen and, when staff gave a date, the calendar on that date with the note “Your care team asked you to book on or after …”.
2. See the cost up front. When visit billing policies apply, the confirm dialog states the money terms plainly — an amount required to hold the appointment, due before the visit, due at check-in, or billed afterward — or Your care team will confirm pricing before the appointment. If pricing changes mid-flow the patient must review and confirm again.
3. Confirm. Confirm appointment (or Confirm reschedule) books the slot; on success the patient can Add appointment to Calendar (an .ics download) and Get Directions. A slot grabbed by someone else fails safely: This time slot is no longer available. Please select a different time.
4. Manage everything from Appointments. The page leads with Your next visit and its pre-visit tasks, then waitlist offers, a Questionnaires and forms list, later visits under Also coming up, and history under Past visits. Every in-person visit has one address line with Directions (and the office phone). Each visit’s Manage menu holds Reschedule and Cancel visit (when only one is allowed it shows as its own button). Cancelling shows a Cancel this visit? dialog with a refund/fee preview, Keep appointment and Confirm cancellation; rescheduling reuses the scheduling screen.
5. Join telehealth from the portal. Confirmations and reminders for video visits include a Hero join link. In the portal, virtual visits show a Join video visit button that activates 15 minutes before the start time and stays open for about an hour after. If required pre-visit tasks are incomplete, the button reads Complete previsit to join instead. The clinician side of the video visit is covered in Run telehealth visits.
6. Check in on arrival. For an in-office visit, the Your next visit card on Home and on Appointments shows Check-in opens at 9:30 AM ahead of time and a Check in button inside your check-in window; afterwards it reads Checked in ✓ with the time, and your front desk sees the patient arrive. Unfinished pre-visit tasks, or a required payment, come first. See Online check-in.

Message the care team — and where it lands

Patients read and write secure messages under the portal’s Messages tab — “Conversations with your care team.” followed by your practice’s reply-time notice, which also shows at the top of New message and under the reply box — with a New message button and a By topic | All in one switch. Every message a patient sends arrives in your clinician Inbox, routed by category, so nothing depends on someone remembering to check a separate system.

1. The patient composes with structure. New message asks who it is to (Select a physician... opens the Select Physician picker), then, depending on how your practice routes messages, a Message type (Clinical or Billing support), “What is your message about?” with your practice’s own categories, or no choice at all. Urgency is Routine (the default) or Urgent. The subject is optional; they write the message, can Add attachment, and press Send (a greyed-out Send says what is missing). Attachments upload before the message is sent. If an upload fails, the message is not sent; the patient keeps the draft and attachment to retry. A reply can consist of an attachment alone.
2. It lands in your Inbox by category. Clinical messages arrive in the Inbox’s Patient folder; billing questions arrive in Billing. Opening a thread shows the conversation and reply box on the right, with linked visit context available on the left. Use Send to portal to reply securely. Triage, forwarding, and reply mechanics live in Inbox threads; AI-drafted replies in AI responses.
3. Two ways to read: By topic or All in one. By topic (the default) lists one row per conversation with an unread dot, a Search by subject or name box, the Follow-ups to book row at the top, and automatic follow-up notices grouped into one Follow-up notices row at the end. All in one shows one chat-style stream for the selected family member, newest at the bottom: messages from every conversation (each labelled with its topic) mixed in time order with visits, lab and imaging results, letters and forms, statements sent and documents, each opening its own page. The gear menu, Show in All in one, turns those kinds on or off (Saved on this device). The patient can reply right there: Replying to picks the conversation (the newest one to start), then Urgency and Send; to attach a file they open the conversation. The portal remembers the patient’s choice of view on that browser. There is no practice setting for it.
4. Patients tune their own alerts. Under the account menu’s Notifications page (“Choose when we send email, text, and push alerts. Full details stay in your secure portal.”), patients control email, text, and push alerts (Messages from your care team, reminders, Quiet hours). Notification emails are alerts only — a privacy point patients often ask about.

How patients pay their bills

Patients reach billing from the Payments & Billing tab (Billing in the phone tab bar), or from the Pay button on Home’s past-due line. It leads with the Account balance and a Pay balance button, a snapshot rail (past due, due soon, Open charges, “Secured by Stripe”), and a Transactions view split across Open / Pending / Paid tabs, with an Insurance tab alongside. This section covers the patient-side checkout only — staff-side balances, statements, and collections live in Patient AR.

1. Pay a charge. Pay charge shows the Amount due and a Pay with choice between Saved card and Link or new card, plus an Express checkout row (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, or card) — all powered by Stripe. Charge details itemizes the Original charge, Paid so far, status, and provider so the patient can see exactly what they owe. A charge still with insurance reads With insurance · Nothing due yet rather than a $0.00 amount, and a bill reads Amount due until the patient has paid part of it. A share the primary insurer assigned to the patient while the visit’s secondary claim is still pending isn’t due yet and can’t be paid online while that claim is pending: its invoice reads Pending other insurance · $10.00 with no due date (the detail says Pending other insurance), and its charge card reads Waiting on {payer}. When that is all the patient has, the page reads “Nothing is due now. $10.00 is waiting on your other insurance.” and the action card Waiting on your other insurance — “$10.00 may be due after it processes your visit. Nothing to pay now.” A page left open from before is refused before any card is charged (“Nothing is due on this charge yet — it’s waiting on {payer}.”), and Print current statement / Save PDF lists the share as Pending other insurance, outside the total due. For a minor, what a parent or guardian sees on a billing line can also depend on the practice’s teen settings (Teens & guardians).
2. Store a card for pre-visit billing. Add a card saves and authorizes a default card — this is the card your visit billing policies charge against for holds and pre-visit payments. The patient sees “Securely stored for next time.”
3. Review history and statements. Lower on the page, Payment history collects payments, refunds, and in-progress billing updates automatically, and Statements keeps anything the practice has sent available for reference.
4. Manage a membership, if your practice offers one. Practices with recurring plans get a Membership section with enrollment, Billing history, Invoices, payment-recovery prompts, and a Cancel membership flow that asks for a reason. The office can also text or email the patient an enrollment or payment link that opens this page (the patient signs in first). Plan setup and the staff-side view are owned by Memberships.
5. Extras your practice may switch on. If the practice requires a membership agreement, the patient sees Review and sign before enrolling and can reopen signed copies under Membership agreements. An eligible self-pay charge can show Have a discount code? when coupon codes are allowed in the portal (Discounts & coupons), taxable account charges list Sales tax separately (Sales tax), and a balance on a payment plan shows its Payment plan schedule (Payment plans).

Under Membership receipts, patients can open receipts and review refunded, pending, and net-paid amounts. Refund requested on is the payment provider’s request date; Refund recorded on is the date Hero recorded a completed refund. Neither is a promise of when the patient’s bank makes funds available. If there is no supported date, the history says Refund date unavailable.

Records, letters, and documents patients can access

The Health Record tab is the patient’s window into the chart. Everything here is downstream of clinician work: signed notes, patient instructions, and orders published by Sign & close, plus lab and imaging results released to the chart (see Results in the portal) and documents from the Media tab. The page (“Your visits, results, imaging, letters, and files, all in one place.”) organizes it all under tabs:

Summary and Activity appear only while your practice has Patient health record download & sharing turned on; the page then opens on Summary, otherwise on Visits. They let patients read their whole health summary for chosen dates, download it or send it to another doctor, see who viewed or sent it, and ask you to limit who sees their information — see Health record download & sharing. Letters shows only while Letters & Forms is on.

Administrators can turn off Visit Notes separately under Admin → Patient Portal Configuration → Features and Save. It starts enabled and requires Health Records. Turning it off hides signed visit notes, summaries, and migrated practice notes while the other enabled health-record features remain available.

When a patient opens an archived document, the viewer explains that it is being retrieved. Wait and try again after retrieval; this message does not mean the record was deleted.

1. Browse the visit history. Visits is a searchable Visit history. Opening a visit shows Patient instructions (“Care guidance from this visit”), the Visit note, the message exchange, Diagnoses, medications from the visit, and lab/imaging orders that deep-link to their own tabs. The instructions are the ones you drafted at encounter completion.
2. Medications, as your team sees them. Profile > Medications lists Current medications and Past medications. Each medication shows its full product name, including the release type, for example “Bupropion XL 150 mg tablet” rather than just “Bupropion”. Current is everything in your Current, Scheduled and On hold groups plus everything in Needs review, because the patient may still be taking it. A prescription that ran out carries a Refill needed note. Anything else your team is reviewing carries Your care team is reviewing. The new-patient medication step and the pre-visit Review your medications check use the same grouping, labelled Current, Current · refill needed and Current · your care team is reviewing. How rows land in each group is explained in What counts as current. When your practice allows online refill requests, eligible rows carry a Request refill button, and a Refill requests section below the list shows each request’s status, your care team’s message, a Book a visit button when a visit is needed, and Cancel request while it is still pending — see What patients see.
3. Pull in outside records. An Import records button opens Import Medical Records, where the patient searches for their outside health system and connects via Epic to bring external records into the chart. Availability depends on the outside system supporting Epic patient access, so set expectations accordingly.
4. Request letters and forms. Letters & Forms is the patient-initiated document desk. Request New Medical Form / Letter walks Visit → Type → (Dates) → Review, with types including Work Excuse Letter, School Excuse Letter, FMLA Form, Paid Leave Certification, Disability Form, Travel Medical Clearance, Accommodation Request, and Custom Form Upload (the patient uploads their own PDF). My Request History tracks submissions, and a How it works panel explains the flow.
5. You approve; they download. Requests arrive in your clinician Inbox under Forms/Letters (see Inbox queues) and in the patient’s Patient Information → Forms & Letters. The physician reviews the generated PDF, can quick-edit corrections, and approves with their saved signature embedded — or rejects with a reason. Staff with Forms & Letters access (front desk, medical assistants, nurses, office managers) can also review and release a request for the provider, and can enter a request for a patient who calls or walks in, which then shows in the patient’s list like their own (Forms & Letters). Completed documents then appear to the patient under Letters & Forms and Health Record’s Letters tab with view and download actions.

Sharing & caregivers: letting family help

A patient can let a spouse, adult child, friend or paid caregiver help with their care — and a parent can ask the practice to add another parent or guardian for a child. Everyone uses their own login: nobody shares a password, and access always covers one person’s chart at your practice. The patient-facing page is Sharing & caregivers, reached from the account menu and from Profile Settings → Family. For a minor, what parents and guardians see from visits a clinician hid is set separately, in Teens & guardians.

1. The patient invites a helper. Invite someone to help walks three short steps: who (name, the helper’s own email, relationship), access, and review. Appointments & messages is always included; Also let them see shared health records starts off and is the patient’s choice. Access lasts Until I remove access or Until a date. For security the portal may ask the patient to confirm their password or passkey before sending.
2. The helper accepts. The email invitation expires after 7 days. The helper signs in — or creates an account — with exactly the invited email, reviews what was shared, confirms they are 18 or older, and taps Accept (or Decline). A helper with no chart of their own goes straight to the patient’s portal, with a Helping … label so it’s always clear whose portal is open.
3. The patient stays in control. The patient sees Shared by you, pending invitations (with a separate email-delivery status), and anything Managed by your practice. Change access turns health records off immediately; turning them on sends the helper a request to accept. End sharing stops access on the helper’s next click. The patient gets a short email when a helper accepts, declines, changes or loses access. A helper can also choose Stop helping.
4. Parents request; staff decide. On a child’s portal, a parent taps Request parent or guardian access. Nothing is sent to the other adult yet — the request waits in Admin → Patient Registration → Access requests (the button shows a count). Review it, verify the adult’s identity and authority, tick the confirmation, record how you verified it, and approve: that sends the same parent or guardian invitation described in Patient registration. Choosing Unable to approve keeps your reason staff-only; the family simply sees “Unable to approve — contact the practice.” Pending requests for a child also appear at the top of that child’s Portal access panel.
5. Staff can set it up for an adult. For an adult patient, Portal access shows Caregivers & helpers. Add helper asks who authorized it: Patient authorized (the patient asked you; they can end it from their portal) or Verified representative (you reviewed legal authority such as a healthcare POA or guardianship; the practice manages it). Record the evidence reference and reason — both are kept in the access history. Remove any helper with Remove access in the same dialog.

Choose what teens and guardians can see and complete

A clinician can hide a visit from parents and guardians using Patient portal visibility in the note. The visit’s notes, summary, forms, documents, handouts, homework, and follow-up details then stay hidden from those representatives. The practice chooses whether additional chart data is visible, and how the appointment itself appears.

1. Open Admin → Patient Portal Configuration → Teens & guardians. Practice administrators and staff allowed to manage portal settings can edit this tab. Set each card’s Applies to age range where offered. Ages come from Scheduling → Organization → Minors.
2. Review the practice defaults. The table below describes a practice with no custom choices. Existing saved choices remain in force; check the values shown before advising a family.

Restricted appointments show logistics

With Generic appointment, a guardian sees an Appointment card with the date, time, and location, followed by Contact the practice to manage this appointment. Visit type, clinical notes, forms, and self-service appointment actions are withheld. With Hidden, the appointment is omitted. New notifications and calendar exports follow the access policy; previously delivered messages and downloaded calendar files cannot be recalled.

Private questionnaire drafts

Private keeps saved answers and photos with the person who started them until submission. Each office kiosk visit counts separately. When someone submits, other unfinished drafts and photos for that questionnaire are discarded. In the mobile app, typed draft answers remain on that phone; photos follow this setting. A guardian who cannot see an assigned questionnaire cannot complete it from their portal; an eligible teen can use their private sign-in, or staff can hand the office kiosk to the teen.

Save defaults or make a patient exception

Add an optional reason and choose Save teen & guardian settings. Change history records the change. In Admin → Patient Registration → Portal access, authorized staff can override a minor’s values under What parents & guardians see. Use practice settings removes the individual choices; Guardians see everything and Guardians see the least fill the guardian choices. Teen questionnaire access remains a separate choice.

Allowing more access than the practice default needs a reason. Save the patient change with Save; if a colleague saved first, reload before trying again. Overrides last until the practice’s adult age. These settings do not change staff chart access.

Set up one login for a care home or family representative

A shared login lets one authorized care home or family representative manage several adult patients, including messaging, booking, records, and signing forms. This access is broader than a caregiver helper invitation. Keep each patient’s authorization or power of attorney on file.

1. Open an adult patient’s invitation. In Admin → Patient Registration, open Portal access and Send invite. Staff need portal-access management permission. Enter the representative’s email and choose Shared login (care home or family).
2. Review the holder and relationship. Enter Name of the care home or person and choose Relationship. If that email already has a login, its existing name is used.
3. Tick each additional patient deliberately. Patients this login manages lists eligible patients sharing the email. Only the current patient starts selected (along with any patients already on that shared login, which stay selected); tick each additional patient whose access you have authorized. Before you submit, the summary line — This login will cover N patients — shows how many patients the login will reach in total.
4. Complete setup and read each result. Set up shared login emails one invitation for a new login. A pending invitation gains the additional patients. For an existing login, Add to shared login grants access immediately, with nothing for the holder to accept. The result lists which patients were added, switched, updated, or skipped.

Change a patient’s portal sign-in email, or send a sign-in link

When a patient can’t log in because their portal sign-in uses an old or mistyped email, staff can change the sign-in email and email them a sign-in link to set a password. Correcting the email on the chart does not change the sign-in email; this does. Both are in the patient’s Portal access window.

1. Open Portal access. In Admin → Patient Registration, find the patient and click Portal access (the key icon) on their row. Current access lists every portal account that signs in for this patient. A line such as Signs in with a different email than the chart: … means “Forgot your password?” emails go to that sign-in email, not the chart email.
2. Click Change email on the patient’s own sign-in (or Use chart email on the warning line to fill in the chart email). The panel explains “… will sign in with the new email. Their password, chart access and history stay the same.”
3. Enter the New sign-in email and a Reason for the change (recorded on the patient’s access history), for example Patient confirmed the correct address by phone.
4. Leave Email a sign-in link to the new address so they can set a password ticked and click Change email. Hero confirms Sign-in email changed to … A sign-in link was emailed there.

Send a sign-in link without changing anything

Send sign-in link on any active sign-in emails that address a link to set a password and sign in: “Sign-in link emailed to … It works for one hour.” It goes only to the sign-in’s own email. For an invitation the patient never used, the same window shows Invitation sent to … not used yet with Resend invite.

Portal sign-in items in the Inbox

When a patient’s “Forgot your password?” can’t reach them, Hero files a staff item in the Inbox under Inquiries, labelled Portal sign-in, so someone can help. The subject says what happened: Portal password reset could not be sent, Portal password reset went to a different email, Portal password reset can’t reach the patient’s email, or Portal sign-in email bounced. The message names the chart (by MRN) and ends with What to do, usually Change email as above. A reply goes to the email the patient typed.

Items close themselves once a later portal sign-in solves the problem, for example when the chart gets its own sign-in or the sign-in starts using the chart email. A closed item is marked read and ends with a line such as “Closed automatically: this chart got its own portal sign-in on … No action is needed.” Bounced or unreachable emails are never closed automatically; staff fix those.

Change the message in portal invitations

The wording of a single portal invitation (sent from Patient Registration or a new patient’s registration) is Hero’s standard message and can’t be edited: Welcome to Your Patient Portal, a Set Up My Account button, the 6-digit verification code, and the expiry date. What you can change:

1. The look and sign-off of every patient email. In Admin → External Providers → Email, the Email template card (“Branding for automated patient emails — reminders, confirmations, follow-ups, and registration.”) sets Header background, Header text, Buttons & links, Show practice logo, the Signature, and Extra footer lines (for example Se habla español and a phone number). Use Preview, then Save template. The invite dialog notes when it uses it: From … using the practice template.
2. Your own wording, for many patients at once. Invite patients to the portal in Communications sends each patient a personal sign-up link with a message you write (Invite many patients to the portal).

Weekly invitations for patients with an upcoming visit

Hero can invite patients who have a visit coming up but no portal account every week, without anyone sending invites by hand. Turn on Weekly portal invitations in Admin → Scheduling → Patient Notifications, on the Appointment reminders tab (off until you turn it on; it needs the same permission as reminder settings).

• Who gets one: every Sunday at 12:00 PM Pacific, patients with a visit in the next 14 days who have not set up the patient portal.
• Email first, then texts: the first invitation is the standard portal email above. Once a patient has had a portal invitation email, they get a text instead, up to 3 texts. Texts go out only between 8 AM and 8 PM practice time.
• Who is skipped: patients with no email on file, anyone invited in the past week, and patients who opted out of texts (for the text).
• What it sent: while it is on, the card shows Last 7 days: N emailed, N texted.
• Replies to the text: when a patient who still has no portal account texts back within 14 days (for example to say their email has changed), the text goes to Inbox → Inquiries for your team to answer, even if your practice keeps other texts that can’t be filed on a chart out of the Inbox (SMS messaging).

Sign-up reminders after an invitation

When a patient was sent a portal invitation and hasn’t finished signing up, Hero reminds them for you. This is on for every practice; the Portal sign-up reminders switch is in the same card, under Weekly portal invitations.

• Which invitations: one sent from the patient’s chart or Admin → Patient Registration, an automatic intake invitation, and a weekly invitation. Invitations from an Invite patients to the portal campaign follow that campaign’s own reminder settings.
• When: about 2, 7 and 14 days after the invitation went out, at most three reminders, between 9 AM and 7 PM practice time. Each one waits from the last message the patient got, so if someone on your team resends the invitation, the next reminder moves back.
• How: the first and third reminders are texts when your practice texts and the patient can get one; the second is an email. If a patient can’t get a text, they get an email instead, and the other way round. The text names your practice (and the visit date when one is in the next two weeks) with the sign-up link, the code and Reply STOP to opt out. A child’s reminder goes to the parent or guardian and names the child. The email is the usual invitation with Reminder: in the subject. The last text says when the link expires.
• When they stop: as soon as the patient signs up, when the invitation is cancelled, replaced or expires (30 days), when the chart email changes, or when the patient opts out.
• What it sent: while it is on, the card shows Last 7 days: N reminders sent. Each reminder also updates when the invitation last went out on the patient’s chart.

Find your patient portal address (URL)

Hero EMR does not show your practice’s patient portal web address on a settings screen. Patients reach it from the links in their invitations, reminders and portal emails, so they rarely need to type it. To see it yourself:

1. Open Admin → Scheduling → Paperwork Reminders.
2. Click Preview message on any step. The preview uses sample patient details, but “the practice name, branding and portal link are the real ones patients will see”. The link in the text message preview is your portal address.

The office check-in kiosk is the same address followed by /kiosk. If you want the address for your website or printed materials and the preview doesn’t show it, ask Hero EMR support.

Give both parents portal access to a child’s chart

Two parents or guardians can each have portal access to the same child, each with their own email and password. Nobody shares a login. Staff add the second parent; a parent can also ask from the portal.

1. Open the child’s Portal access from Admin → Patient Registration (the key icon). For a minor it opens on Parents & portal access (“Each person uses their own email and password. Invitations grant access to the same patient chart.”).
2. Click Add parent or guardian. Enter the Adult's full name, their own Sign-in email, and the Relationship (Parent / guardian or Legal guardian).
3. Verify and record it. Tick I verified this person’s authority to access this patient’s portal. and fill Verification reason (for example identity and authority checked by front desk).
4. Click Send invitation. Hero says “Invitation queued. Access starts after the recipient accepts.” Use Resend invitation or Cancel invitation while it is pending.

How patients add more than one insurance card (secondary insurance)

Patients can add several insurance cards in the portal, for example a primary and a secondary plan, as long as Insurance Self-Service is on in Admin → Patient Portal Configuration (it is unless you turned it off).

1. During portal setup. The Insurance Information step lists the cards on file. After the first card it offers Add secondary insurance, then Add another insurance card.
2. Any time later. In Profile → Insurance, the patient taps Add Insurance.
3. For each card, the patient can tap Scan card to fill the form from photos of the card, or type it in, and sets Insurance Type to Primary or Secondary. Save checks coverage with the insurer when it can; otherwise the office reviews it.

Staff review each card and set the order claims use on the chart’s insurance (Insurance). A practice can also collect card photos in a questionnaire: a photo question with File the photo as set to Insurance card (filed under Insurance card) files it with the patient’s insurance cards.

Is health history part of the default new-patient intake?

Health history is a step in portal setup (orientation) that new patients complete after registering, titled Health History (“Surgeries, lifestyle, and family health history.”). It appears only when your practice collects at least one history category, chosen in Admin → Patient Portal Configuration → Features under Orientation intake.

The full setup sequence is Allergies, Medications, Health history, Preferred pharmacy, Your doctors, Who pays for your care, then Social Security number, Insurance and Payment method when your practice uses them. Patients can catch up or correct their answers later in Profile → Health History. Past medical problems and screening questions are not part of this step; send them as questionnaires (questionnaire rules).