How are PHRs accessed?
PHRs should be permission-based because it truly is personal health information. That means the carrier captures all the information, but the insured party has to give permission to the appropriate parties — like doctors — to access and disseminate that information.
One way PHRs can be accessed is through a Web portal. For example, PHRAnywhere is a medical information storage bank that also offers an individual the ability to carry a pocket card (smartcard), which provides physicians and other health care providers access to all this information through the use of a key code provided by the insured.
Assuming the insured individuals give permission, their doctors, both primary care and specialists, will have access to all the information. Any emergency room physician across the country can access the records; they only need access to the Internet.
How can insurance providers help people use these records?
Some carriers provide incentives for employees to lose weight, exercise, use generic drugs and get primary care such as physicals, colonoscopies and mammograms. Some things are captured during the claims system; others are self-reported.
For example, Alliant provides incentives for people to keep up to date with information online. To get points in their wellness program, we’re asking them to provide updates via their PHR versus faxing in a form or something like that. It’s pushing people to use technology in ways that will pay off in the future.
How does it benefit business owners to look for carriers with these personal health records?
The more people take responsibility for their health and are doing things with a positive approach to improve or get better, or at least be aware, you’re going to see less inappropriate care and the excesses are going to be reduced. Any time people need less care, costs are going to go down.
An employee involved in keeping up his or her PHR tends to be more involved with his or her health. If an employee is paying close attention to her health, she will know when it’s time to get a mammogram, which could lead to early detection of breast cancer. If you catch breast cancer early enough and you perform a lumpectomy instead of a radical mastectomy, the savings are huge — to say nothing of the emotional aspect that a woman and her family goes through with a mastectomy. It all adds up pretty quickly.
Albert Ertel is the COO of Alliant Health Plans. Reach him at (706) 629-8848 or [email protected].
