Minimal Use of $2.5M CMS PHR Program

Medicare's $2.5 million pilot of Personal Health Records (PHR) has drawn so little use that the program may not be renewed according to a recent article in the Arizona Republic. The CMS regional administrator wouldn't give specific figures but did say that the percentage participation was lower than the 3-6% nationally that use some sort of health record.

The pilots in Arizona and Utah provide seniors with access to one of four PHRs from Google Health, HealthTrio, NoMoreClipboard.com and PassportMD. Medical histories can be stored. The PHRs come prepopulated with two years of Medicare claims information documenting recent history (e.g., visits, medications, procedures)

"Officials from Medicare and participating software vendors acknowledge that a small percentage of Arizona seniors have signed up for the $2.5 million health-records program launched in January, raising questions about whether the one-year experiment should continue next year. 'We'd like to see more involvement,' said David Sayen, regional administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees the government insurance programs for seniors, the poor and disabled."