More health insurance plans are offering federal employees personal health records (PHRs) and other health IT for keeping track of records or to compare cost and quality, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
But despite the wide availability of PHRs from these plans, few federal employees actually use them, OPM said in an annual report published Feb. 5.
In 2009, 86 percent of health plans made PHRs available for their federal members, compared with 75 percent in 2008 and 51 percent in 2007, OPM said in its report.
As the human resources office for the federal government, OPM highlights on its Web site the names of private health plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program that use health IT. OPM also publishes an annual "transparency" report about the plans.
Even as OPM reports pockets of health IT progress in its health plans, the agency said that "the lack of interoperable electronic systems and standards inhibits the flow of critical health information among patients, providers and health plans.
The majority of federal health plans report that less than 5 percent of federal members used their PHRs for one or more sessions. Only 19 percent of health plans reported that they had usage rates of more than 5 percent, according to OPM's report.
PHRs generally enable consumers to create personal health profiles containing information about their health conditions, medications, provider and insurance information. The information in most PHRs in the federal health program is entered by the employee member or populated by the health plan claims data.
Because only a small number of medical providers use electronic health records, health plans likewise have limited ability to draw clinical data into their PHRs and "the decision support functions they can provide to patients and providers," according to the report.
Additionally, "there remains a lack of market acceptance of a common PHR definition, data content and portability standards," the report said.
However, most federal health plans, or 86 percent, have taken steps to educate their members about the value of health IT through information they post on plan Web sites, newsletters mailed to members, open enrollment meetings and member education materials.
According to the OPM report, 66 percent of plans have online physician or hospital cost estimators or comparison tools on their Web sites, while 75 percent of the health plans have online tools which compare physician or hospital quality.
Additionally, 64 percent of plans told OPM that their physicians can order prescriptions online.
