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Online Scheduling with Athelas lets practices provide a custom, practice-specific scheduling link to new or existing patients for booking appointments. Patients access available appointment times by providing their name, date of birth, and confirming their phone number through a 2FA code — giving a low-friction place for new or existing patients to book appointments.

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Accessing and configuring Online Scheduling

Settings for Online Scheduling can be accessed in the Preferences tab, under the Portal Configs sub-tab. Preferences tab showing Portal Configs sub-tab

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Turning on Online Scheduling

From the Portal Configs tab, practices can enable Online Scheduling by clicking the toggle in the Online Patient Scheduling section. Online Patient Scheduling toggle

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Configuring Online Scheduling

Once turned on, several settings are available to adjust the behavior:
  • Site Slug — changes the URL patients use to access online scheduling for the practice. For example, with the slug yourpractice, patients go to:
    portal.athelas.com/site/yourpractice
  • New Patient Signup Destination — determines the behavior when a patient indicates they are a new patient. Practices can either allow access to the scheduling functionality directly, or redirect new patients to the Landing Page to generate a lead.
  • New Patient Appointment Scheduling — when toggled on, appointments from new patients are sent as Appointment Requests rather than booking directly to the calendar. This is similar to the general Require approval on appointment requests setting, but applies only to patients who select New Patient.
Online Scheduling configuration options

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Using Online Scheduling as a patient

When patients click on the site-specific link, they are taken to a sign-in page where they indicate whether they are a new or existing patient.

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New patients

If New Patient is selected and the New Patient Signup Destination is set to Lead Tracker, the patient is redirected to the Lead Tracker Landing Page where they can input their information to generate a new lead. New patient redirected to Lead Tracker If the New Patient Signup Destination is set to Online Scheduling, the patient can input their information into the sign-in page and access scheduling.
Note: After a user selects New Patient, inputs name, DOB, and phone, and completes 2FA, a new patient record is created automatically with this information. Users who do not complete scheduling or provide information such as insurance will still have a patient record created.

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Existing patients

If Existing Patient is selected, the patient inputs their information into the sign-in page and accesses scheduling.

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Scheduling

Once patients have accessed the scheduling page, they select the following information to view available times:
  • Provider
  • Location
  • Appointment Type — only External Appointment Types are shown (see Reserve Blocks for mapping details)
  • Insurance Type
    • For existing patients, this list populates with their insurance options on file.
    • For new patients, this list populates with Self Pay automatically. They can search for their payer name based on the available payers for the practice.
Existing patient scheduling with insurance lookup Once a time is selected, the patient either confirms the appointment or fills out additional information: New patients progress through 2 information update screens:
  1. A Patient Update screen, where they add information like email address, home address, and confirm their personal details. Patient update screen
  2. An Insurance Update screen, where they provide the specific details about their insurance and can upload pictures of their insurance card. Insurance update screen with card upload
This information automatically populates in their new patient profile. The patient then progresses to the confirmation screen. Existing patients progress directly to the confirmation screen. Existing patient confirming appointment

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Security and privacy

Because the online scheduling link can be accessed online by any party, specific controls and security settings have been built in with privacy in mind. The following exceptions and blocks are handled:

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Existing patient mistyping information

If an existing patient mistypes a name or date of birth, a neutral message asks them to try again or register as a new patient. Neutral "does not match any records" error Note: If an existing patient mistypes their phone number, they will not receive a 2FA code to their phone. The 2FA is sent to the number entered on the login screen, not any phone stored in patient records.

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Existing patient trying to use the New Patient flow

If a user attempts to log in as a New Patient with information matching an existing patient (name, DOB, and phone), a message tells them to proceed as an existing patient.
Note: This happens after they have completed their 2FA, to prevent a non-patient with someone else’s information from determining whether that person is a patient of the practice.
Prompt to proceed as existing patient

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New patient trying to use the Existing Patient flow

If a new patient attempts to log in as an Existing Patient with information that does not match any patient at the practice, the same neutral “does not match any records” message is shown. They can retry with correct information or switch to the New Patient flow.

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Non-patient attempting to access existing patient information

If a non-patient attempts to log in with existing patient information, one of the following happens:
  • As an Existing Patient, entering the actual patient’s phone number — a 2FA is sent to the actual patient before any error or success messages are revealed. This prevents the non-patient from determining whether the individual is a patient at the practice.
  • As an Existing Patient, entering a different phone number — a 2FA is sent to that number. After confirming, the user is shown a neutral “does not match any patient” message. This obscures whether the information was incorrect because of the mismatched phone number, or because the individual is not a patient at all.
  • As a New Patient, entering the actual patient’s phone number — same protection as above: a 2FA is sent to the actual patient first.
  • As a New Patient, entering a different phone number — after confirming 2FA, the user is allowed to create a new patient profile. This does not expose whether that person is already an existing patient or not.
The full flow of potential login outcomes is shown in the chart below: Full login outcome flowchart

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FAQ

Patients go to portal.athelas.com/site/{site_slug}, where {site_slug} is the Site Slug you set in Portal Configs → Online Patient Scheduling. Share this link on your website, in SMS/email campaigns, or via QR code.
Turn on New Patient Appointment Scheduling to route new-patient bookings to the Requests tab for approval. For existing patients, use the broader Require approval on appointment requests setting under Portal Configs.
Yes. New patients see Self Pay by default, but can search for their payer from the list of payers configured for your practice. The insurance details they provide populate their newly-created patient profile.
Multiple safeguards: 2FA is always sent to the phone number the user enters (not a stored number); neutral error messages are used across all mismatch scenarios; the “you should proceed as existing patient” prompt only appears after 2FA completes. See the flowchart above for the complete set of branches.
Routing to Lead Tracker is useful when you want to triage new patients before confirming an appointment — for example, to verify insurance eligibility, apply intake rules, or assign a specific provider. Routing to Online Scheduling is faster for practices that accept any new patient who meets their appointment criteria.