March 06, 2018 - 10:09 AM
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration says it's launching a new effort to make electronic medical records easier for patients to use. Medicare will play a key role.
The MyHealthEData initiative will be overseen by the White House Office of American Innovation, headed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Electronic medical records were ushered in with great fanfare but it's generally acknowledged they've fallen short. Different systems don't communicate. Patient portals can be clunky to navigate. Some hospitals still provide records on compact discs that newer computers can't read.
Medicare administrator Seema Verma said her agency is working on a program called Blue Button 2.0, with the goal of providing beneficiaries with secure access to their claims data, shareable with their doctors.
The announcement came at a health care tech conference in Las Vegas.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018