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PHOENIX (AP) -- The federal agency that oversees Medicare has selected Arizona and Utah for a pilot program that invites senior patients to store their health records on the Internet as part of a government effort to streamline and improve health care.
The program allows patients to easily share their medical histories, which now often must be provided separately to doctors, hospitals, labs or pharmacies.
That could help patients if they switch doctors, pick up prescriptions or get care at an emergency room.
Medicare's program is one part of the health care industry's push to modernize medical record-keeping using information technology.
Advocates say electronic records can help reduce medical errors that occur when a doctor doesn't know a patient's history.
But some have raised privacy concerns because there is no federal law that restricts how third-party vendors such as Google can use health records.
An electronic record can easily follow a patient to a new city or a specialist across town, said Kerry Weems, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Health care officials estimate 80 percent or more of doctors offices do not have digital records.
Medicare, the federal government's insurance program for those 65 or older, tapped Arizona and Utah because the states have a diverse mix of seniors and a split of rural and urban areas. Also, Arizona has made advanced health-information technology a priority.
Arizona's Health-e Connection has established a goal that all doctors, hospitals and other health care providers convert all medical records to digital form by 2010.
Medicare officials do not know how many Arizonans will enroll, but they expect it will be a popular health tool, particularly as Baby Boomers become eligible for Medicare.
A Medicare spokesman estimated the one-year pilot program, which starts in January, will cost the federal agency about $2.5 million in administrative costs. The program will be adjusted and potentially expanded after the first year.
More than 40 Internet vendors expressed interest in the pilot program, Weems said, but the federal agency selected Google Health, HealthTrio, NoMoreClipboard.com and PassportMD.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
