Senate Passes Bill S. 1418 'Wired for Health Care Quality Act' Mandating Electronic Health Records for Every American
Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 12:00 CST
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of the recent passing of the Senate's "Wired for Health Care Quality Act" (S. 1418), MyMedicalRecords.com will wire Americans for free to the first comprehensive on-line medical records storage system and "e" safe deposit box. The Company also announced that it will seek government grants and private-public partnerships to continue to offer those in need free access to their most vital medical records and important personal documents on an ongoing basis.
In 2004 President Bush challenged the nation to create an Electronic Medical Records Network over the next 10 years to improve care, save the country hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs and save countless lives by avoiding dangerous medical mistakes.
In passing S. 1418, the Senate took the first major step of moving towards the goal of an electronic health system, allocating nearly one billion dollars through 2010 for grants and development while encouraging the private sector to create the technology that will turn this nation's objective of an on-line virtual heath network into a reality.
According to Robert H. Lorsch, Chairman & CEO of the company, "MyMedicalRecords.com goes beyond the vision of the Bush Administration and the Senate Bill in that it is the nation's first truly standardized electronic Personal Health Record relying on technologies available in every home and office today: a fax machine and free PDF reader."
According to Lorsch, the service allows patients to organize a complete unalterable copy of an individual's Personal Health Record just like the colored folders patients have at their doctor's office. "Subscribers have access to notes, drawings, sketches, lab reports and even, photographs, X-rays, ultrasound and scanned images. Whatever information is in the patient's file can be available to a subscriber from any internet computer anywhere in the world 24 hours a day. And the entire application is available now hundreds of millions of dollars under budget and nearly ten years ahead of schedule," Lorsch said.
Storing documents and images in a MyMedicalRecords.com account is as easy as faxing to a personal "Lifeline" phone number assigned to each individual subscriber. The Lifeline is the subscriber User ID which, when linked to a password, enables secure access to an account. "And because health care providers fax records directly to a patient's dedicated Lifeline each subscriber account is automatically updated after any visit to a health care professional," Lorsch noted. In fact, the MyMedicalRecords patented subscriber notification system makes it possible for any medical professional to update a file with a regular fax machine and no special training.
MyMedicalRecords.com also incorporates a dedicated voicemail box allowing health care professionals to communicate with their patients in complete privacy while the built in calendar function notifies users when it's time for a prescription refill and reminds them of important appointments. "When a user receives a fax or voice message, or has a prescription refill or doctor appointment, they can be notified via e-mail, pager or even text message. The system works in the background to serve the user, not the other way around," said Lorsch.
The Company is quick to note that its design has value beyond just medical records storage. "Recent natural disasters have taught us that we must be concerned not only with rebuilding our homes but also with rebuilding our lives," noted Lorsch, who has received numerous awards from the White House, FEMA, the State of California and the City and County of Los Angeles for his service in earthquake preparedness.
Disaster relief agencies including the Red Cross and FEMA encourage individuals to keep easily retrievable copies of all emergency documents, not just medical records. "Consistent with this advice, the MyMedicalRecords.com system was designed to store photos of children, family members and pets, copies of birth certificates, passports, mortgages, driver's licenses, insurance policies, wills, powers of attorney, bank statements, and any other vital documents," said Lorsch. "The system allows them to be sorted, filed and accessed instantaneously based on each user's individual needs."
One reason the government has given a ten year lead time to fulfill its mandate to modernize the national health care system with electronic records is the desire to develop universal industry standards. Last month, the Department of Health & Human Services awarded contracts totaling $18.6 million to Accenture Ltd., Computer Sciences Corporation, IBM and Northrop Grumman to develop prototypes for a standards-based network for the secure exchange of health care information. The MyMedicalRecords.com platform applies existing standards instead of new standards, and can be implemented across the board using traditional telephony and a free PDF reader.
The system is as secure as those used by the world's largest financial institutions. "All patient records are encrypted and locked, accessible only to the subscriber or designated individuals or emergency responders," assured Lorsch. "And for the most sensitive financial and personal information, users can designate a separate lock-box protected by a secondary pass-code. The bottom line is that MyMedicalRecords.com has a simple, secure and convenient solution today that is easy and efficient for the health care provider and affordable and accessible for every American."
About MyMedicalRecords.com
MyMedicalRecords.com is a privately held corporation based in Los Angeles that empowers consumers to take greater control of their personal health by providing them with a virtual safe deposit box for storing, managing and sharing their medical records and other important documents in an organized and easy-to-use manner. For more information or to take a multimedia Flash tour of the web site, visit http://www.mymedicalrecords.com/ or call 1-888-808-4667, Ext. 129.
MyMedicalRecords.com
CONTACT: Michael Buchanan or Terry Wills, both of Wills Communications,Inc., +1-310-524-0200, for MyMedicalRecords.com
Web site: http://www.mymedicalrecords.com/
Source: PRNewswire
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