AF Medical Service to begin MiCare registrations March 1 82nd Medical Group 2/6/2013 - SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The Air Force Medical Service is excited to begin patient registrations for MiCare, the Military's online confidential secure messaging service. This system has been shown to significantly reduce the number of phone calls between patients and providers, increase patient satisfaction, and save time for the medical office staff and the patient. The AFMS aims to enroll as many patients as possible into MiCare and utilize secure messaging as the primary form of communication between patients and their healthcare teams. Patients currently enrolled in MiCare are already talking about the ease, accessibility, and benefits of this Internet-based service. One MiCare enrollee said, "it is always empowering to be able to communicate via the Internet about routine health issues - and can very well prevent visits to the clinic..." Another enrolled patient said MiCare "will answer lots of questions and save so much time for both doctors and patients." On MiCare, patients can request appointments with healthcare providers, get test results, request prescription refills, or ask their healthcare team medical questions via a secure electronic message that bypasses phone-trees, voicemail, and phone tag. MiCare is currently set for secure messaging and will be adapted to include Personal Health Records at a later date. To register, patients should visit Sheppard Clinic beginning March 1 to initiate the face-to-face registration process. Patients will need show their military identification card and provide basic information such as name, social security number, birthday and email address. An email will be sent for patients to finish enrollment and confidential messages may begin. MiCare has been designed to support patients and healthcare teams and will be implemented Air Force-wide, so once registered, a patient will remain in the system--no matter where the Air Force takes them. For more information, visit http://www.afms.af.mil/micare or call (940) 676-1351.