Health records differ from office to office, from diagnosis to diagnosis, and from insurance carrier to insurance carrier. That is all about to change. The federal government has dedicated a $20 billion portion of the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – effective February of 2009) to modernize current health information technology systems. The HITECH act covers the financial and standard terms of this effort. These funds are available for health-care providers who can demonstrate a “meaningful use” of electronic health records (standardized as part of the HITECH act), or EHR’s. This has also standardized the use of PHR’s, or personal health records, which the individual can maintain and deliver, electronically, to the health-care provider that needs it.
What this means for the health-care seeker is total control over your own medical records. With services such as Google Health and Microsoft’s HealthVault, as well as a multitude of other PHR and EHR management services, the individual will be able to view and update their own health records. For health-care providers, not only does this increase efficiency across the board, with matters such as billing, and insurance, but with more critical aspects such as awareness over the patient allergies or previous lab results. The EHR standards are nationally recognized and all authorized providers will be able to interpret your records, even if you are across the country in an emergency room. The goal and inevitable result is better health and patient care for everyone who is up to standards.