Secure Messaging: Sending Letters via Healthlink & Medical Objects

This article explains how to send letters via Secure Messaging using Healthlink or Medical Objects in MediRecords, covering the prerequisites for sending correspondence, practice registration, validating contacts, and sending letters. This applies to practices registered with either provider for secure electronic correspondence. 

For configuration steps, see Secure Messaging: Configuration - Healthlink, Medical Objects, Clinical Labs, MQ Link, & Fetch.

Contents:

1. Pre-Requisites for Sending Letters via Secure Messaging
2. Practice Configuration
3. Validating Contacts for Secure Messaging
4. Sending Letters via Secure Messaging
5. Medical Objects Provider Number Requirements
6. Understanding Secure Messaging Statuses
7. Troubleshooting
8. Further Reading

Pre-Requisites for Sending Letters via Secure Messaging

Before sending letters via secure messaging:

• Your practice must be registered with Healthlink or Medical Objects.
• Your practice configuration must include valid secure messaging credentials.
• The sender must have a valid Provider Number in MediRecords (mandatory for Medical Objects).
• The recipient contact must be validated as a secure messaging user.
• For Medical Objects: the sender must also be registered in the Medical Objects network.

Practice Configuration

1. Go to More.
2. Click Settings.
3. Choose the Configuration Settings tile.
    
4. Choose the practice.
    
5. Under Secure Messaging, enter the details provided by your vendor:
   • Healthlink (HL): EDI address (e.g., menopagp)

   • Medical Objects (MO): URL and Name Space format:

     ℹ️ Note: URL: https://hd-.moc.medical-objects.com.au/hl7/
     Name Space format: Practice Name^GUID^GUID
6. Click Save.

Validating Contacts for Secure Messaging

Once Secure Messaging is configured:

1. Click More on the MediRecords menu ribbon, select Resources, and click Contacts.
    
2. Choose Health Professionals.
    
3. Use the search filter to locate the contact and click their Name.
    
4. Ensure a Provider Number is entered.
    
5. Select the Secure Messaging Provider (Healthlink or Medical Objects).
    

6. Click Validate.
    

   ℹ️ Note: MediRecords sends a request to confirm the contact’s active status in the provider directory. If successful, a toast message appears, and you can hover over the info icon to view:
    

   • Last Validation Date
   • EDI (for Healthlink)
   • Medical Objects Provider Number

Sending Letters via Secure Messaging

1. Open the Patient Record, go to the Clinical section, and click the New Letter icon.
    
2. Search for the contact by name, select it, and click Save.
    
3. Click Letter, choose the type, and select the template.
    
4. Make any necessary edits, then click File and Save.
    
    
5. Enter the Subject and any additional details, and then click Save and Send.

ℹ️ Note: The letter will be sent and appear in your Secure Messaging Outbox. To view it, click the Secure Messaging Icon on the menu ribbon, then select Outbox.
 

✅ Tip: If successful, you'll receive a green toast message reading “Outbound message sent”.
 

Medical Objects Provider Number Requirements

If your practice is configured with Medical Objects, the sender of the letter must have a valid Provider Number.

• If the sender’s Provider Number is missing or invalid, the message will still be delivered to the recipient.
• However, the system will not be able to retrieve the delivery acknowledgment report, and the message status will remain as Pending.

To avoid this, please ensure that all Providers and Clinicians have entered their correct Provider Number in the User Profile, under the Identifiers section.
 

Understanding Secure Messaging Statuses

Secure Messaging letters can show the following statuses:

• Pending: Message has been sent, but no delivery acknowledgment has been received.
• Delivered: Message has been successfully delivered and acknowledged by the recipient’s system.
• Failed: Message could not be delivered due to configuration issues or incorrect recipient details.

Troubleshooting

I received a green "Outbound message sent" toast, but the message is still showing Pending, even after resending. Is something wrong?

Cause: Not necessarily. This toast message can be a little misleading: it confirms that Send or Re-send has been clicked, not that every check needed for successful delivery has passed. Correct configuration, valid sender and recipient provider numbers, and a valid vendor certificate all still need to be in place, and several of those checks happen outside MediRecords, on the Secure Messaging vendor's side.

Resolution: Check your practice's Secure Messaging configuration, and confirm the sender's and recipient's provider numbers are correct and current.

Escalate when: The configuration, provider numbers, and vendor certificate are all confirmed correct, but the message still shows Pending after resending.

Why am I getting a "Cannot Find Recipient" rejection?

Cause: This is the most common rejection reason seen across all Secure Messaging vendors, and it usually comes down to the recipient's provider number not being recognised. Common causes include:

• The provider number in the message isn't registered against any active user in any MediRecords tenant.
• The Provider has left the practice, so external senders such as labs or radiology providers are still sending to a provider number that no longer has an active match.
• The receiving practice or tenant can't be resolved, because the identifiers in the message don't map to a configured tenant.
• The Provider's number is recorded under a different identifier field to the one the sending vendor uses to match against.
• A name-matching fallback fails because the name format in the message doesn't exactly match how the Provider's title, first name, and last name are recorded in MediRecords.

Resolution: Check the recipient Provider's number and identifier fields under More > Resources > Contacts > Health Professionals against the causes above, and confirm the name is recorded in the same format your Secure Messaging vendor expects.

Escalate when: The recipient's details are confirmed correct and current, and the rejection still occurs.

A Provider has both a Provider No. and a Medical Obj. number set up. Which one does Medical Objects use?

Cause: When both fields are populated, Medical Objects does not use them equally: the Medical Obj. column takes priority. If it's left empty, the Provider No. column is used instead.

Resolution: Check and update these values under More > Settings > Subscription Details > Users > click the user's name > Identifiers.

Escalate when: Both fields are checked and correctly populated, but the message is still misdirected or rejected.

We're receiving incoming letters fine. Does that mean our Secure Messaging configuration is set up correctly?

Cause: Not necessarily, this is a common misconception. Inbound and outbound Secure Messaging use different mechanisms, so inbound working correctly doesn't confirm that outbound configuration is correct.

Resolution: Review your configuration under More > Settings > Configuration > [Practice name] > Secure Messaging, and check these details with your Secure Messaging vendor directly if you're troubleshooting outbound issues.

Escalate when: Outbound configuration is confirmed correct with your Secure Messaging vendor, but outbound messages still fail to send.

I validated a contact's details a while ago. Could that recipient still cause a rejection now?

Cause: Yes. A contact's details are only checked against the Secure Messaging vendor's provider directory once, at the time the contact is created or updated in MediRecords. They aren't automatically re-checked afterwards. If a recipient later becomes inactive with the vendor, messages to them can silently stay on Pending with no warning.

Resolution: If you suspect this, manually re-validate the contact under More > Resources > Contacts > Health Professionals > select the Secure Messaging Provider > Validate.

Escalate when: The contact has been re-validated but messages to them are still stuck on Pending.

Further Reading

• Secure Messaging Configuration Guide
• Secure Messaging FAQs