| High quality health care today simply means | | | | consumer's claims and organizational information. |
| having the right information in the right hands and | | | | PHRs allow individual patients and their chosen |
| at the right time. You may be an individual or a | | | | caregivers to look and manage health care |
| family, every body need concurrent access to | | | | information and play a better role in their own |
| health care information that might be discrete | | | | health care. |
| among a number of physicians, hospitals, | | | | Consequently of health insurance claims filed on |
| pharmacies, and other health care providers. But | | | | behalf of consumers, insurers have most |
| in fact we are many years away from the | | | | information required to give PHRs, and are in an |
| system that are fully interoperable. Consumers | | | | exclusive position to build them for customers in |
| would have superior access to the health care | | | | the near term. PHRs are different from the |
| information they require to optimize their health | | | | electronic health records, which providers normally |
| and health care thanks to a new personal health | | | | use to store and run detailed clinical information. A |
| record (PHR) model being urbanized by Blue cross | | | | projected 75 million people have PHRs throughout |
| health insurance plans. | | | | health insurers, with millions more planned for the |
| America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the | | | | service during 2007. |
| Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) | | | | Physicians tend to encourage insurers to accept a |
| worked jointly to recognize the core health care | | | | reliable set of core PHR data. Health insurers |
| information to comprise in PHRs, and have | | | | would carry on innovating in the PHRs they |
| urbanized and pilot tested standards, which allow | | | | expand, but the aim is to slot in core data |
| consumers to move PHR data when they actually | | | | elements into every PHR. These elements |
| change their coverage. This ensures that PHRs | | | | comprise patient histories, medications, |
| would surely be portable from health insurer to | | | | immunizations, allergies, risks, plans of care, and |
| health insurer as customers have requested. | | | | much other information, which physicians |
| Members of the two teams cover about 200 | | | | recognized as the key data. The health insurance |
| million people. | | | | groups of people have set an objective of |
| The industry model PHR by Blue cross insurance | | | | incorporating the core data elements and |
| is in fact private, secure web-based tool | | | | implement the standards for portability from a |
| preserved by an insurer, which contains a | | | | previous insurer to a new insurer by 2008. |