“The Bay State’s [Blue Cross Blue Shield] health insurance giant has agreed to allow members to post claims data to Google Health.”
Boston, MA — Less than a month after search engine goliath Google Inc. launched Google Health, a site designed to allow patients to store and organize their medical records in a central, secure location online, has partnered with “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts,” its first insurer to participate in the effort.
The greatly-utilized health insurance provider’s partnership with Google is to make the free electronic service available to its three million member base sometime this fall, which will allow its members to create an account with Google Health so that they can have their records and claims at their fingertips.
“The deal would enable Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to import its claims data into Google’s personal health record tool.”
The Massachusetts insurance company is the first health insurer to sign an agreement to integrate with the personal health records (PHR) program, which it says will help patients manage their medical care. The program is set to kick off beginning this fall.
Members and providers are equally wary of possible privacy violations, but Google has guaranteed them that their records will be in good hands and that they will have no problem managing their records.
The move numbs some of the program’s early critics, who had complained about the lack of support from insurance companies. Because insurers have claims data that spans various doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, they are often seen as a key to providing adequate data to populate personal health records (PHR) systems.
“Our members inform us they want easier and more portable access to their health care information,” said Steven Fox, the insurer’s Vice President of Provider Network Management, in a statement. “Having this information in one place can play an important role in managing a member’s health and in helping members and their doctors make health care decisions that can improve the quality of care they receive.”
Google’s project was commenced during the second half of May. According to Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, patients can upload medical records from organizations, enter their own data and create their own profile, search for viable information on health conditions or ask for a second opinion on their diagnosis.
The arrangement would allow insurance members to gain online access to information on their health records, including medications, diagnoses and office visits if they open a Google Health account. The insurance company has assured its patients that the information stored on Google Health will not be shared or sold without patient consent.
Once this is integrated with the BCBSMA system, members will be able to import and manage all their claims data into their Google PHR safely and securely, without having to re-key it, and share it with any health care provider. Google Health allows users to store data about medical conditions, medications and past treatment online. Each time new data is added to a user’s profile, the system checks for potential adverse reactions to a medication or treatment.
Chairman and CEO of BCBSMA, Cleve Killingsworth, said:
“We believe Google Health will be an important tool used by our members to improve the safety and effectiveness of their health care.”
Killingsworth added that the partnership showed the company’s continuing leadership in using technology to improve health care, adding to the commitment already shown in BCBSMA’s funding of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and helping to found the Massachusetts eRx Collaborative.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is an autonomous licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a federation of 39 independent, locally operated insurers covering some 100 million Americans.
In addition, Google Health is bundled with a number of features designed to help its users. For instance, a link can be used in order to find doctors by location or specialization. Moreover, users can be notified when they need to take their medications or about possible drug interaction through another feature, called “virtual pillbox”.
Other Google Health partners who have signed on since the start of the initiative are Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Walgreens Pharmacy, CVS Caremark, the American Heart Association, Quest Diagnostics, Medco, Longs Drug Stores and the Cleveland Clinic.
The Blue Cross merger is anticipated to be completed in the fall of 2008. At that time, all members of the Massachusetts insurer can access Google Health for free. BCBSMA members will be able to delete their Google Health profile any time, and the two companies said members should be assured that their information will not be sold to or shared with third parties “without the user’s explicit consent”.