Medical Records May Be Coming To The Workplace
Wednesday, December 06, 2006SUSIE GHARIB: Some of the nation's biggest employers want to make it easier for their workers to keep track of personal health records. Those employers are now developing an Internet-based system to do just that. The companies including Intel, Wal-Mart and Pitney-Bowes say it will save money and keep workers healthier. But as Stephanie Dhue reports, there are other considerations besides cash and care.
STEPHANIE DHUE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Most medical records are still kept like this, but some employers who pay a large portion of health care bills want to change that. So they're building a web-based system that lets employees maintain their own medical records. Intel chairman Craig Barrett says the program will reduce costs.
CRAIG BARRETT, CHAIRMAN, INTEL: There's hundreds of millions, billions of dollars of excess administrative cost. There's issues with 100,000 prescriptions each year which are wrong, cause death or serious problems. There's all sorts of issues of medical errors. If you automate the industry, you're going to get rid of those. That has to bring the cost down.
DHUE: the program is called Dossia. The founding firms Intel, Wal- Mart, Pitney Bowes, Applied Materials and BP provide health care coverage for about 2.5 million people. Employees will have the choice to participate beginning in February. A nonprofit company called Omnimedix will administer the program.
J.D. KLEINKE, CEO, OMNIMEDIX: Our goal is to build the equivalent of a hyper-secure, highly specialized medical Internet.
DHUE: Doctors have been skeptical and slow to adopt new information technology, but some say projects like this could change that.
DR. DOUGLAS HENLEY, EXEC. VP, ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS: Having a standardized portable and interoperable patient health record that interacts and connects with the electronic health record is good for patients and physicians.
DHUE: A key concern is privacy. The firms in the Dossia program say records will be kept by individuals and released only with their consent. Health experts say consolidated medical information can be useful, but employees will have to trust the information is secure.
JOY PRITTS, GEORGETOWN HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE: Some of the people who would most benefit from a personal health record are people with chronic medical conditions. They are also the people who cost the employer the most money. It boils down to: do you really think it's going to stay private and it won't be used against you?
DHUE: The companies hope to show that information technology applied to health care records will be convenient for employees and good for their bottom line. Stephanie Dhue, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.
