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Recording history
Being an informed health care consumer goes beyond making insurance choices. Understanding and keeping track of your own health history is another important piece of the puzzle. You can play a more active role in your health care by creating a personal health record (PHR).
While PHRs are not legal HIPPA documents like the electronic health records used by health care professionals, they can provide immediate access to your health history and protentially help reduce costs.
What is a personal health record?
PHRs are booming in popularity thanks in part to a growing number of free and paid online services that make it easy for consumers to collect and store health care information, records and history, and then share them with family members, caregivers and health care providers at their discretion. PHRs help save time and money by preventing duplicate tests and procedures. They can also assist with communicating important information in a medical emergency.
PHRs commonly include the following:
• Personal information, including your name and birth date and address
• Emergency contacts
• Medical providers — names and contact information
• Health insurance information, including key phone numbers
• Allergies and sensitivities to food, drugs, materials such as latex and any others
• Current medications and dosages
• Family health history, including important events, dates and hereditary conditions
• Significant illnesses and surgical procedures along with dates
• Medical devices
• Important test results
• Eye and dental records
• Immunizations and their dates
• Results from recent exams and physicals
• A living will
• Organ donation authorization
• Any additional health information you wish to include, such as your exercise regimen, over-the-counter or herbal medications you take and counseling you receive.
How do I choose one?
Just like choosing a doctor, hospital or insurance plan, it’s important to shop around when selecting an online PHR service. While they are generally the same at their cores, the additional features they provide may vary.
Some include emergency cards that instruct paramedics and others on how to access your information. Others allow you to upload data directly from devices, including heart rate monitors, glucometers, blood pressure monitors and weight scales. Other common features include: educational information and resource listings, drug interaction checkers, and doctor and hospital searches, as well as the ability to import pharmacy and lab data, view radiology images and obtain your records from medical providers.
Some services will even collect your records from current and past health care providers — usually for a fee that covers administrative costs providers may legally charge.
Here are some things to take into consideration when comparing services:
• Ease of use — Can you import claims and medical information from your health plan and/or doctors? If your doctor offers the PHR, can you use it to refill prescriptions or make appointments?
• Privacy and security policies — What are they?
• Comprehensiveness — What kind of information can you store there? What additional features are offered? What health education information links are offered?
• Accessibility — Can you give others, such as doctors or family members, permission to view your PHR?
• Portability — If the PHR is offered through your employer or health plan, can you take it with you if you leave? What happens to your information if the company goes out of business or merges with another company?
• Costs — Are there annual fees or charges for extra services?
Who provides PHRs?
In addition to PHRs offered by employers and insurers, there are well beyond 50 personal online services. Here are a few of them:
Where can I learn more?
These are government and association site that do not offer PHRs; however, they provide information and providers:
• The American Health Information Management Association’s myPHR
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