81st MDG encourages participation in MiCare Published June 21, 2012 By Maj. Paul Jones 81st Medical Group senior group practice manager KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The 81st Medical Group invites patients to register for MiCare, the online secure messaging application built to facilitate confidential online communications between doctors and patients. After registering, patients may access MiCare anywhere, at any time to: ·Avoid unnecessary office visits and telephone calls ·Communicate online with their health-care team about non-urgent symptoms ·Receive test and lab results ·Request medication renewals ·Request a copy of their immunization records ·Request an appointment ·Access a large library of patient education materials In addition, MiCare allows health-care teams to contact patients to provide services such as appointment reminders; follow-up on conditions without requiring a trip to the medical treatment facility; medication alerts and refill information; medical test and referral results; and notification regarding vaccinations, school physicals and hospital closure dates. Patients are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible. Those already enrolled have provided overwhelmingly positive responses. One MiCare enrollee said, "It is empowering to be able to communicate via the internet about routine health issues and perhaps make it unnecessary to visit the clinic." To register, patients simply visit the Keesler Hospital, present their military identification and provide some basic information such as name, Social Security number, birth date and email address. They will then receive an email to finish the enrollment process.