Archive for August 2010

All during the health care reform debates, the raison d’etre most often given for passing the act was the number of people without health insurance.  Proponents of the legislation laid the blame on high insurance costs, labeled insurance companies ‘greedy’, and promised affordable health care for everyone if the bill passed.  The legislation, the Patient [...]

In the previous entry, Personal Health Records in Your Future, we pointed out the benefits of maintaining your own medical records. The personal health record (PHR) you would put together would be an invaluable compilation of your medical history across all the health providers you interact with.   Once filled out, it would give you and [...]

In the previous blogs about medical records, we’ve pointed out that medical providers, by law, are required to replace paper-based patient records with electronic medical records (EMR) by 2015.  This computer-based format will pave the way eventually for a health information exchange (HIE), allowing all health providers to share a patient’s medical records.  This won’t [...]

In our previous blog about Electronic Medical Record Concerns, we noted that using electronic medical records results in better care and saved lives primarily because the medical information is so easily accessible.  However, this also makes these records accessible to more people and increases the likelihood of misuse.  Consequently,  people are concerned with loss of [...]

Previously, we wrote that, by law, paper-based patient medical records kept by health providers are being replaced by electronic medical records.  All medical facilities must make significant steps in that direction by 2015 or face penalties.  But what about us patients?  How will electronic medical records affect us? First, a short summary:  Electronic Medical Records, [...]

Does your doctor walk into the examining room with a folder with your name on the tab,   stuffed with odd bits of paper, hand-written notes, old forms and ragged-edged test results?   If so, he or she has until 2015 to move all that information to an electronic medical record (EMR) or face financial penalties. EMR [...]