On Friday, the Office of Personnel Management released a list of health plans participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program that have committed to health IT by offering Internet-based personal health records and other online health tools, NextGov reports (Ballenstedt, NextGov, 2/5).
According to OPM's 2009 Health IT Report, 45 federal employee health insurance providers have "demonstrated their commitment to efficiency, safety and quality through computer system enhancements that offer personal health records, quality information and price-cost transparency decision support tools."
As early as 2006, OPM began asking federal health plans to broaden and enhance the use of health IT (Miller, Federal News Radio, 2/5).
The health plans listed in the report allow participants and their family members to:
- Access electronic health records to track, manage and view personal health information;
- Share health information with health care providers; and
- Use online tools to access cost and quality information.
OPM plans to add more health plans to the list as they adopt new health IT tools (NextGov, 2/5).