Aetna Links Up With Microsoft’s HealthVault

Posted by Sarah Rubenstein in the Wall Street Journal Health blog Aetna is taking a new step toward making patients’ health records portable. The national insurer will begin allowing enrollees in its plans to transfer medical records to Microsoft’s year-old health record site, HealthVault. Starting next month, many Aetna members will be able to move information from their Aetna “personal health record” — an online repository of data that includes claims, diagnoses, test results and prescriptions — to HealthVault, the WSJ reports. This is part of a broad effort among tech companies, insurers and health providers to help patients access all of their health info in one place and transfer it easily to doctors or hospitals, among others. Sites including HealthVault and Google Health, which launched earlier this year, are trying to become central points where patients’ data are available to them, for instance, when they switch from one insurer to another. Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente next month will start a pilot for its employees to transfer data in Kaiser’s personal-health record to HealthVault. Also next month, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will start allowing members to send their claims information to Google Health. Online health records so far haven’t gained much traction among patients, because many remain unconvinced of the sites’ utility and ease of use and also worry about the security of their private information, Liz Boehm, a principal analyst at Forrester Research told the Health Blog. Aetna says it’s exploring relationships with other online health-record companies, including Google. “We believe that the personal health record needs to be as ubiquitous as it can be in order for us to get the most value from it,” Aetna President Mark Bertolini told us. (Perhaps Aetna CEO Ron Williams has had a change of heart since he referred to Microsoft’s and Google’s efforts as “vaporware.”)