Referrals

Overview

Referrals in Avara Connect let approved partner organizations send patients to your practice — and let you send patients to theirs — through a structured, auditable workflow. Each referral carries patient context, optional supporting documents, priority, and an expiry date so your team can triage and act on incoming requests efficiently.

Configuring Appointment Types for Referrals

Referrals are tied to appointment types. In Appointment Types configuration, you can mark an appointment type as Connect available. When enabled, any of your explicitly approved Connect contacts can send referrals for that appointment type.

Direct Booking (Clinical Platform)

If your organization uses the Avara Clinical Platform, you can optionally go further: allow Connect contacts not just to send referrals, but to book their patients directly on your calendar for that appointment type.

When direct booking is enabled, you can choose whether to require payment upfront or allow booking without collecting payment at scheduling time. Public promo codes configured for that appointment type can be applied during the booking flow as well.

Notifications and Worklist Assignment

When a referral arrives, the right people need to see it quickly.

• Notification list — Configure a list of users to be notified when a new referral comes in.
• Referral assignees — In the Connect contacts subtab on the Connect page, you can assign a user on a contact’s profile to process referral tasks from that organization. Assigned referrals appear explicitly in that user’s worklist.

Managing Inbound Referrals

How you resolve a referral depends on your product tier.

Clinical Platform Customers

When you receive a referral, you can:

• Book the patient — Schedule the patient directly from the referral on your calendar. Booking resolves the referral automatically.
• Mark as resolved — Close the referral without booking if it has been handled outside the system or is no longer needed.
• Cancel — Cancel the referral if it should not proceed.

When you book a patient from a received referral, the referring provider is automatically granted access to view that appointment only under continuity of care — no manual share step required on either side.

Connect-Only Customers

Connect-only organizations can mark referrals as resolved or cancel them. Direct calendar booking from a referral requires the Clinical Platform.

Sending Outbound Referrals

To send a referral to another organization, that contact must have at least one appointment type marked Connect available. You can only send outbound referrals to Connect contacts who have opened a compatible appointment type for inbound referrals.

Attach any supporting documents the receiving provider may need — typically chart notes, visit summaries, or documentation intended for payer submission — directly to the referral before sending.

Referral Details

Attached Documents

Documents can be attached to any referral. Common attachments include chart or visit notes for the receiving provider’s clinical use, or documentation required for payer submission.

Expiry

Each referral includes an expiry date. Payers often require referrals to remain valid within a specific window; you can set expiry accordingly. Avara Connect does not strictly enforce expiry — expired referrals remain visible but serve as a signal for your team to review whether the referral is still actionable.

Priority

Referrals can be marked normal, high, or stat. In your referrals list, items are ordered by priority: stat first, then high, then normal, so urgent requests surface at the top of the queue.

Coming Soon

Prior authorization and eligibility checks are being built into the Avara Connect referrals workflow. These will help verify coverage and authorization requirements before or during the referral process.