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Medicare News
Medicare to Test Online Personal Health Information
for Senior Citizens
Goal is for seniors to better track their services
and monitor their health care
July 26, 2006 Medicare, which has been offering a
personalized online record of a senior citizen's Medicare benefits and
personal health information entered by the beneficiary, but the agency
is ready to test the next step automatic entry of personal health
information. The goal is to allow seniors to better track their health
care services and monitor their own health care.
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Currently, Medicare beneficiaries are able to
receive personalized information about their Medicare benefits and
services at the My.Medicare.gov pages on
www.medicare.gov.
Although these are not true personal health
records, users can save, update, and keep a record of their self-entered
prescription drug and pharmacy information that can be retrieved at any
time with a password date and confirmation number. This allows them to
have a record of their current drug list with them at all times.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says
enhancements are being made to further improve usability.
This latest move by CMS is a new project that seeks
to test the feasibility of integrating Medicare claims history
information with other Internet-based tools, that could ultimately allow
people with Medicare to track their health care services and monitor
their health care.
By using emerging technologies and tools, people
with Medicare will be better able to manage their health care, resulting
in improved quality in the care they receive and ensuring that care is
provided more efficiently, said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan,
M.D., Ph.D.
The steps we are taking today will test whether
Medicares current data will help to populate useful personal health
records for Medicare beneficiaries.
CMS recently awarded two contracts to test the
transfer of Medicare claims data into Personal Health Records (PHRs).
The six month contracts were awarded to ViPS and Capstone Government
Solutions, and the total cost of the project is $500,000. The goals of
the project are to:
● Test the feasibility of using Medicare claims
data in personal health records,
● Assess how to best communicate data from
existing CMS systems to PHR tools,
● Evaluate the information included in existing
PHRs, along with how they would best help Medicare beneficiaries care,
and
● Evaluate how existing PHRs address security and
privacy issues.
The My.Medicare.gov internet portal is now
available to beneficiaries nationwide and has over 140,000 registered
users. Services currently available through the portal include access to
personalized information about the users Medicare claims, Preventive
Services for which they are due, Medicare Enrollment (including
Prescription Drug Plans), Medicare Secondary Payer, and Other Insurer
information. Users can also access online forms, publications, and
messages sent by CMS.
As My.Medicare.gov expands and provides greater
functionality, and the use of PHRs continues to grow, beneficiaries will
enjoy greater access to health information that will better equip them
to manage their health care, CMS says.
The PHR Feasibility Test is a component of a larger
CMS PHR action plan which describes a number of ways that CMS can help
promote the growth of PHRs and ensure that beneficiaries have private
and secure access to their own health care information. CMS action
plan supports the activities being undertaken by the Department of
Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and
the American Health Information Community (AHIC).
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