Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey to Sponsor Two-Year Pilot With Hackensack University Medical Center to Implant Medical Microchips in Chronically Ill Patients
Posted on: Monday, 17 July 2006, 12:00 CDT
NEWARK, N.J., July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state's oldest and largest health insurer, announced today a two-year collaboration with Hackensack University Medical Center, its physicians, and the VeriChip Corporation (VeriChip) to implant FDA-approved microchips in chronically ill patients enabling emergency room physicians to access those patients' medical record electronically. The microchips provide immediate access to family contact information and information about the patients' medical histories that could mean the difference between life and death in an emergency.
Horizon BCBSNJ will make the new technology, developed by the VeriChip Corporation of Delray Beach, Florida, available to select members with chronic conditions. Those members who participate in the program will agree to have an implantable radio frequency identification device (RFID), the size of a grain of rice, placed under their skin.
VeriChip calls the RFID a personal health record module. The information on the module will include medical information from Horizon BCBSNJ's claim records, such as lab test data and pharmacy prescription information. This module emits a 16-digit number that links the patient to their electronic medical record when a special hand-held scanner is waved over it.
The pilot program will give Hackensack Medical Center physicians access to the member's electronic medical records and other vital information in the event the chronically ill member cannot respond during an emergency. The content of the electronic medical records will be approved by each member and include information about their condition, family contact information as well as lab test data and pharmacy information maintained by Horizon BCBSNJ.
"Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is committed to utilizing new technologies to improve the health care experience for our members," said Dr. Richard Popiel, vice president and chief medical officer for Horizon BCBSNJ. "This two-year collaboration with Hackensack University Medical Center, its physicians, and VeriChip will provide cutting edge technologies that will hopefully save lives and provide measure of comfort to our members with chronic conditions and to their families."
"We are very pleased that Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is about to commence its trial of our VeriMed Patient Identification System," said Kevin McLaughlin, Chief Executive Officer of VeriChip Corporation. "VeriMed's ability to reliably and securely link patients to critical medical and emergency contact details will give VeriMed-enabled emergency rooms access to the information they need to make critical healthcare decisions."
About Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, with headquarters in Newark, is New Jersey's largest health insurer, providing coverage to more than 3.2 million people. Horizon BCBSNJ's company Web site is located at http://www.horizonblue.com/. Horizon BCBSNJ is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
About VeriChip Corporation
VeriChip Corporation, headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, a subsidiary of Applied Digital , develops, markets and sells radio frequency identification, or RFID, systems used to identify, locate and protect people and assets. VeriChip's goal is to become the leading provider of RFID systems for people in the healthcare industry. VeriChip sells passive RFID systems for identification purposes and active RFID systems for local- area location and identification purposes. VeriChip recently began to market its VeriMed(TM) Patient Identification System, which is used to rapidly and accurately identify people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate. This system uses the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip, the implantable VeriChip(TM), cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
CONTACT: Tom Rubino, Horizon BCBSNJ, +1-973-466-8755,trubino@horizonblue.com
Web site: http://www.horizonblue.com/
Source: PRNewswire
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