New Medicare Records Pilot Program

Week of August 18, 2008

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a pilot program to test options for beneficiaries with Original Medicare to maintain their health records electronically.  Under this pilot in Arizona and Utah, a beneficiary may choose one of the selected commercial personal health record (PHR) tools, and Medicare will transfer up to two years of the individual's claims data into the individual's PHR. PHRs help consumers manage their health and health care services.  A PHR is a record of health information that is under the control of the consumer or patient.  Sometimes it only contains data entered by the individual or his or her provider, but it can also include information from a health plan -- as is the case in this pilot, where Medicare provides health information from its claims data base.  A PHR is different than an electronic health record (EHR), which is owned by and under the control of the physician. The PHR vendors will have until Sept. 8, 2008 to submit their applications to participate in this pilot with CMS. If PHR vendors want more information about this pilot, they can visit http://www.NoridianMedicare.com/phr/ or they can send an email to solicitation@medicarephr.org.