The YAKAP Double Encoding Problem (and How to Fix It)

You finish a consultation. You write your clinical notes in SeriousMD. Then you walk over to the clinic computer, open eKonsulta, and type the same patient data all over again in the YAKAP SOAP format.

Same patient. Same diagnosis. Same prescription. Entered twice.

If you're a YAKAP-accredited doctor using SeriousMD, this is probably your daily reality. And you're not alone. We hear this from doctors all the time.

Why Double Encoding Happens

The problem is simple: SeriousMD and eKonsulta don't talk to each other.

SeriousMD is where you do your clinical work. Your patient history, charting, prescriptions, lab requests. It's your medical record.

eKonsulta is where PhilHealth wants your YAKAP data. It requires a specific structured format: the YAKAP SOAP notes, FPE records, lab results, prescriptions. All encoded in their system for submission.

Same information. Two separate systems. No sync between them.

So every patient encounter means double the work. You chart in one, then re-encode in the other. Update a prescription in SeriousMD? You have to update it in eKonsulta too. Change a diagnosis? Same thing.

And the kicker: eKonsulta runs on a specific computer at the clinic. It's local, not cloud-based. So you can't even do the re-encoding from home or on your phone. You have to be physically at that machine.

What This Actually Looks Like in Clinics

Based on what doctors have shared with us, here are the patterns we keep seeing.

The dedicated encoding day. One clinic with 13,000 registered patients sets aside entire days specifically for eKonsulta encoding, separate from actual clinical work. The doctor sees patients on some days, encodes on others. That's clinical time burned on data entry.

The paper-to-digital relay. Another clinic has the doctor write on paper during consultations. Later, a separate encoder inputs everything into eKonsulta. The doctor's handwritten notes become the source of truth, and someone else translates them into the system. Every translation step introduces potential errors.

The manual cross-referencing. The patient master list has to be downloaded from eKonsulta, manually cross-referenced with clinic records, then re-entered where needed. This is tedious, error-prone work that eats hours.

Some clinics hire dedicated staff whose entire job is eKonsulta encoding. That's a real salary going to someone whose work would be unnecessary if the systems were connected.

The Hidden Cost

Let's be direct about what double encoding actually costs your clinic.

Time. Every patient encoded twice is minutes wasted. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of patients, and you're looking at full days lost per month.

Accuracy. When you enter data in two places manually, mistakes happen. A wrong dosage here, a missing lab result there. And when PhilHealth reviews your submissions for second tranche payment, those mistakes matter.

Staff costs. Clinics that hire a dedicated encoder for eKonsulta are paying a salary for work that shouldn't need to exist.

Frustration. This one doesn't show up on a balance sheet, but it's real. Doctors didn't go through medical school to spend their afternoons doing data entry on a clinic computer that can't connect to the internet.

The Fix: YAKAP Inside SeriousMD

SeriousMD is building YAKAP integration directly into the platform. Your clinical records and YAKAP submissions in a single workflow, no re-encoding needed.

Here's what that means in practice:

Encode once during the consultation. Your YAKAP SOAP notes, FPE records, lab results, and prescriptions are captured while you see the patient. No second encoding step. No walking over to the eKonsulta computer later.

Submit to PhilHealth directly from SeriousMD. Select your date range, generate the report, and submit. No downloading files and uploading to another portal.

Automatic daily master list import. No more manual downloads and cross-referencing. The master list syncs into SeriousMD automatically.

Cloud-based, accessible anywhere. Encode from the clinic, from home, from your phone. You're not chained to one specific computer anymore.

PhilHealth YAKAP certified. SeriousMD holds Software Validation Certificate KON-13-01-2026-00002, issued by PhilHealth for electronic data submission using the YAKAP API v1.1.

Before and After

What This Means for Your Clinic

If you're currently using SeriousMD for clinical work and eKonsulta for YAKAP, integrating means:

No more separate encoding days. Your YAKAP data is captured during the consultation itself.

No more hiring extra staff for eKonsulta encoding. The encoding happens as part of your normal clinical workflow.

No more paper-to-digital relay. Your notes go digital once, and that's the record for both clinical and YAKAP purposes.

Your clinical records and YAKAP submission data become the same record. One source of truth.

The Timeline is Real

PhilHealth is shutting down eKonsulta by July 1, 2026. All clinics must declare their chosen EMR by April 1, 2026. If you're already a SeriousMD user, the transition is straightforward because you're already familiar with the platform.

For details on the switch, including what paperwork is needed and how data migration works, see our eKonsulta to EMR migration guide.