Last Updated | July 9, 2026
Epic Care Companion is a patient engagement tool inside the Epic EHR that delivers a personalized care plan to patients between visits and feeds their responses back to the care team. Like other Epic Modules, it works as an extension of an existing workflow, in this case the Epic MyChart patient portal, giving patients interactive, mobile-enabled tasks so they can manage complex conditions wherever they are. It automates the follow-through that used to depend on a patient remembering a paper handout. This step significantly increases remote clinical compliance; according to real-world healthcare IT data published by Epic, remote patient management programs using this feature achieved an engagement rate of 57%, nearly doubling the 30% to 35% engagement rates typically seen in traditional outreach programs.
What Is Epic Care Companion?
It is a structured to-do list for a patient’s health, assigned by their provider and tracked over time. Epic Care Companion is an interactive digital health assistant that helps a patient follow their care plan with personalized notifications, task checklists, medication reminders, educational content, and a line back to their care team.
What the Epic Care Companion Module is Built For
The Epic Care Companion module does four things:
- Assigns tasks: Education to read or watch, questionnaires to complete, medications to confirm, and general activities like a daily walk.
- Sends reminders: Configurable notifications so a patient is nudged when a task is due rather than relying on memory.
- Collects responses: Questionnaire answers and task completions flow back to the care team, who can message follow-ups.
- Adapts the plan: Care plans can change based on a patient’s readings or answers, and the patient is notified when they do.
Care Companion is not a standalone app a patient downloads on its own. It lives inside MyChart, which is why access, login, and setup all run through the patient’s existing MyChart account.
(add hiplink case study CTA)
How Does Epic Care Companion Work?
Epic Care Companion works by letting a provider assign a care plan made of discrete tasks, then surfacing those tasks to the patient in MyChart on a schedule, with responses flowing back into the chart. The care team sets the plan, the patient acts on it day to day, and the data returns to the team so they can adjust.
The Task Types
Almost everything in Epic Care Companion is a task, and the types fall into a few categories:
- Education tasks: An article to read or a video to watch, with I Understand or I Have Questions buttons that signal comprehension and route questions to the care team.
- Questionnaire tasks: Brief check-ins on symptoms or health topics whose answers go straight to the care team for follow-up.
- Medication tasks: A reminder to take a medication, confirmed by checking a box so adherence is tracked over time.
- General tasks: Everyday activities like a 30-minute walk, marked complete with a green check or missed with a red X.
Reminders, Progress, and a Dynamic Plan
A patient can choose to be notified when each task is due or once daily for everything, and set the timing to morning, midday, evening, or bedtime with two views tracking the rest.
A Progress tab shows how many tasks remain and an overall completion percentage, which the provider can also see. A Changes tab surfaces any adjustments to the care plan triggered by the patient’s readings or questionnaire answers.
Device Integration and Provider Monitoring
Epic Care Companion also connects to at-home monitoring. The care companion epic module uses device integrations and personalized monitoring to alert providers when a patient’s condition is improving or declining.
This is what turns Care Companion from a reminder app into a surveillance tool. A blood-pressure cuff or glucometer reading feeds the plan, and an out-of-range value raises a flag the care team sees.
How to Access and Log In to Epic Care Companion
Patients access Epic Care Companion through MyChart, on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop, by opening the To Do activity.
There is no separate Epic Care Companion app and no separate Care Companion login. The patient signs in to MyChart with their normal credentials, and Care Companion appears as the To Do list inside it.
Accessing Care Companion Step by Step
The OSU Wexner walkthrough lays out the standard flow, and most Epic sites follow the same shape:
- Log in to MyChart on the mobile app, tablet, or desktop with your usual MyChart username and password.
- On mobile, tap the Menu icon and scroll to the To Do icon; on desktop, assigned tasks appear on the homepage, also reachable via Menu then To Do.
- Open a task to complete it: review education, answer a questionnaire, confirm a medication, or check off a general task.
- Use the Progress tab to track completion and the Changes tab to see any updates to your plan.
What Programs Does Epic MyChart Care Companion Support?
Epic MyChart Care Companion supports condition-specific and procedure-specific care plans across a wide range of clinical areas. This includes chronic disease to surgical recovery to maternity.
Each plan is built for a particular condition or procedure, so the library at any given health system reflects the service lines that organization chose to build out.
Programs offered through Epic MyChart Care Companion:
- Chronic and complex care: COVID-19, hemophilia, insomnia, chronic opioid use, and medication for opioid use disorder.
- Surgical and procedural recovery: joint replacement, radical prostatectomy, and pain after limb loss.
- Oncology: breast cancer medication management and cancer supportive care.
- Women’s health and urology: maternity and pregnancy, overactive bladder, and neurogenic bladder.
Where Epic Care Companion Actually Breaks Down
1. The Content is the Product, but it’s Empty
Every program is a body of content someone has to fill. The questionnaires, the education pages, the task schedule, and the branching logic that decides what happens next. A vendor that builds this content describes a single care plan packet as including all the questionnaires, educational content, tasks, and workflow logic, with care plans often carrying 50-plus tasks and 50-plus education pages.
That is the real Epic Care Companion build. Writing clinically sound content for a dozen conditions, at the right literacy level, is the part that consumes clinician and IT time for months.
2. Getting Content into Epic
Even pre-built content takes a real import step to go live. Epic integration has to be packaged and brought in through Epic’s own process. Organizations download the content app from the Epic Showroom via the App Request process, then import a signed XML package for each care plan.
That is a controlled integration workflow with versioning, validation, and governance attached, not a copy-paste. Get the packaging or the import wrong and the Epic Care Companion module does not behave the way the clinical team designed it.
3. Alert Thresholds and Logic
A care plan is only as useful as the rules underneath it. If a questionnaire answer or a device reading is supposed to flag the care team, someone has to define the threshold, build the logic, and route the alert to a person who will act on it.
Set the threshold too tight and the team drowns in false flags; set it too loose and a declining patient slips through. This is the same alert-fatigue problem that plagues any clinical surveillance tool, and in Care Companion it lives inside content nobody sees until it misfires.
4. Enrollment and Adherence are not Automatic
Epic Care Companion does not enroll patients on its own. A provider has to sign a patient up, the patient needs a MyChart account, and then the patient has to keep engaging for the plan to do anything.
The patient-facing pages are upfront that enrollment runs through the provider and requires a MyChart account. So the tool takes up the portal’s adoption gap. Patients who never activate MyChart, or who stop opening it, get no benefit from even a well-built care plan.
Integrate Epic with Folio3 Digital Health
Epic Care Companion gives a health system the delivery framework, and most teams still need help with the parts that make it work. Building and structuring the care-plan content, packaging it for Epic, wiring up device data, and connecting the whole thing to the systems around it. Folio3 Digital Health, as an Epic Vendor Services Provider, works at that layer.
Where an Integration Partner Fits
For a team standing up or expanding Care Companion, it comes to the following parameters:
- Care-plan content and logic: Structuring questionnaires, education, task schedules, and the branching and alert logic that decides when the care team is flagged.
- Packaging and import: Preparing content for the Epic Showroom App Request and signed XML import process so a plan behaves in production the way it was designed.
- Device and data integration: Connecting at-home monitoring devices and feeding readings into the plan, with HIPAA-compliant pipelines and audit trails a compliance review will ask about.
Closing Note
Activating a dynamic care management framework requires much more than simply turning on a new EHR feature; the true value lies in the strategy behind the screen. When health systems shift their focus from basic software activation to comprehensive workflow integration, they transform routine follow-ups into data-driven health management. Organizations must prioritize the patient experience by building inclusive workflows, refine clinical protocols to minimize provider alert fatigue, and leverage specialized technical partners to handle complex data pipelines and compliance auditing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do patients access Epic Care Companion?
Through MyChart, by opening the To Do activity on a phone, tablet, or desktop. There is no separate app or login. A patient signs in to MyChart with their usual credentials and sees the tasks their provider assigned. The only requirement is an active MyChart account.
How is a patient enrolled in the care companion epic module?
A provider enrolls them. The patient calls or messages their care team to express interest, the team signs them up for the relevant program, and the patient confirms they have or will create a MyChart account. To leave, the patient asks the provider to remove them from the program.
Does Epic MyChart Care Companion require building custom content?
Yes, in almost every case. Care Companion is a delivery framework, not a content library. A health system either builds its own care plans, including the questionnaires, education, tasks, and logic, or licenses pre-built content and imports it into Epic. Either way, the content engineering is the bulk of the work, not the app itself.
Is Epic Care Companion the same as remote patient monitoring?
They overlap but are not identical. Epic Care Companion focuses on delivering a care plan and collecting patient-reported responses, and it can incorporate device readings through integrations. Dedicated remote patient monitoring programs center on continuous device data. Many organizations use Care Companion as the patient-facing layer and connect monitoring devices into it for the conditions that need them.
About the Author
Abdul Moiz Nadeem
Abdul Moiz Nadeem specializes in driving digital transformation in healthcare through innovative technology solutions. With an extensive experience and strong background in product management, Moiz has successfully managed the product development and delivery of health platforms that improve patient care, optimize workflows, and reduce operational costs. At Folio3, Moiz collaborates with cross-functional teams to build healthcare solutions that comply with industry standards like HIPAA and HL7, helping providers achieve better outcomes through technology.
