What is Measurement-Informed Care?
If you’re seeing a provider through Rula, you’ll be asked to complete a series of standardized, clinically-validated questionnaires about your symptoms and your provider before each appointment. This is referred to as your pre-appointment check-in survey. Rula shares these responses with your provider, allowing them to use this information to guide your next session and/or make adjustments to your treatment plan.
Your check-in survey provides your mental health clinician with valuable information that they can use to tailor your treatment and focus your appointments, in the same way that your primary care physician may review your concerns and check your vitals.
This clinical treatment approach is known as measurement-informed care (MIC) and helps mental health providers make data-informed decisions related to their patients’ treatment.
Why are check-in surveys important?
While completing your check-in survey is not a requirement, it is strongly encouraged. There are many benefits to completing it on a regular basis:
- Self-reflection: Completing your check-in survey provides you with an opportunity to take stock of how you’ve been feeling since your last appointment, and can help you prioritize discussion topics for your next session.
- Stay on the same page: Giving your provider a better understanding of how you’re feeling before an appointment can help ensure that you stay on the same page regarding how you’re feeling, and gives you an opportunity to discuss any changes in symptoms together.
- Monitor changes over time: Regularly completing check-in surveys allows your provider to monitor your symptoms over time, and make any adjustments to your treatment plan accordingly.
- Better outcomes: Research has shown that the practice of measurement-informed care improves treatment outcomes, and that patients who participate notice improvement more quickly.
How do I complete my pre-appointment check in?
You can access your check-in survey via your appointment reminder emails, the Appointments tab of your Rula patient portal account, or in the Waiting Room of your virtual session. A few important things to note:
- Your check-in survey will become available 48 hours before every appointment
- The check-in survey should take no more than 5 minutes to complete and should be completed prior to your appointment
- You must complete the full survey in order for your provider to see your responses
Interacting with your MIC Scores
To help you better understand your symptoms through your MIC scores over time, Rula provides various places to view and interact with your scores. The most prominent location is a Progress report within the Rula provider portal that summarizes how your MIC scores have changed across your check-ins and provides a simple explanation to help you understand your results.
Where to find your MIC Results
Your most recent scores are displayed in both your Rula patient portal, within the Appointments tab, and in the Zoom waiting room prior to an appointment.
Your progress over time appears in the Progress Report within the Appointments tab of your Rula patient portal.
What you’ll find in your Progress Report:
- A display of your MIC scores over time
- See how your symptoms have changed across your previous check-ins
- Visual Trends
- A bar graph shows patterns or shifts in how you’ve been feeling
- Educational explanations
- Each section includes short, easy-to-understand notes about what your score represents.
How the Progress Report supports your care
The patient progress report is designed to empower you with clear insight into your care. Here are some ways that it may impact your care:
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Understand your symptom patterns: The graph shows how your scores have changed over time so you can observe moments of improvement or increased difficulty.
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Connect regular check-ins to your progress: Completing the MIC check-ins allows you to see measurable changes reflected in your report
- Learn through simplified explanations: Each section provides supportive context about what your score generally represents.
Please note: The report does not diagnose conditions, recommend treatment changes, or replace conversations with your provider. For interpretation and questions, please speak with your provider.
What if I’m managing care for a minor or medical dependent?
Patients ages 5 and up are eligible to participate in measurement-informed care at Rula. The surveys will differ depending on the age of your minor, ensuring your minor receives clinically appropriate questions. Check-in surveys should be completed by the patient receiving care – but we encourage you to assist your child or medical dependent in completing them if they are not able to do so independently. Rula also encourages parents to periodically participate in sessions to review their child’s responses with their provider and to share their perspective on their child’s symptoms and care needs.
While completing their check-in surveys is not required, regularly completing them will allow their provider to better evaluate their symptoms and make any necessary adjustments to their treatment plan.
Additional FAQs
What happens if I don’t complete my survey before my next session? |
While it’s best to complete your check-in survey before the session to allow your provider to review your scores and prepare for your session, we understand it’s not always possible to do so. In instances where you can’t complete your check-in survey prior to the session, your provider may offer to complete it with you at the beginning of your appointment. |
| Who has access to my check-in survey data? |
Your Rula provider and the Rula clinical quality and care team. Your provider should review your check-in survey at the beginning of each session and discuss any changes, trends, or additional treatment needs based on your responses. The Rula clinical quality and care team also reviews all measures data in aggregate, and reviews the charts of providers in the Rula network to ensure we’re meeting our standard of care. |
| How is this information going to be used? | Regularly completing surveys helps your provider understand how you’re feeling before each session and to monitor changes in your symptoms over time. They can use this information to make any necessary adjustments to your treatment plan based on your goals. Rula also reviews data across our provider and patient population to identify opportunities to improve the consistency and quality of the care we deliver. |
Where can I see the results of my completed measures? |
The results of your completed measures can be viewed in various locations including: the Zoom waiting room prior to a session, the appointments page of your Rula patient portal, and the Progress Report located in your Rula patient portal. |
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Why don't I see a MIC score or graph line reported in my Progress Report every week?
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Scores are collected in alignment with your appointment schedule. Your check-in survey becomes available 48 hours before each session, and your score appears in your Progress Report once the survey is completed. If a survey isn’t completed before a session, no score will be added for that time period, which may result in gaps in your graph. Your provider can help ensure that measures are collected consistently moving forward. |
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If I complete my MIC for an upcoming visit but then reschedule that appointment within the same week, will I need to do it again?
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You will NOT be prompted to recomplete the MIC if you are rescheduling with the same provider. |
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If I have both a therapy visit and a psychiatry visit in the same week, do I need to complete separate MICs?
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If both the therapist and psychiatrist are providers you've already seen before, and you complete your MIC before one of those visits, you will not need to complete it again for the other visit in the same week. However, you will still need to complete Therapeutic Alliance (TA) questionnaires for each provider, since those are specific to the type of care and your relationship with each provider. |
| As a Kaiser patient, I am asked to complete MIC surveys before each appointment. Why is that? | Please note that the MIC survey cadence for Kaiser patients is changing, rolling out in phases between June and July 2026. Kaiser patients are required to complete these surveys. Completing these brief surveys before your appointments is a contractual requirement from Kaiser to maintain your care coverage through your insurance plan. Kaiser administrators use these measures to track your progress and ensure network compliance. |
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