JACKSONVILLE, FL - Jan 5, 2007 - Availity LLC, a leading health care information exchange, in partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Inc. (BCBSF) and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) announced their plan to expand the deployment of the area's first true payer-based electronic health record, the Availity
® Care Profile, in 2007. The Availity Care Profile is an electronic record maintained by health plans that contains claim-based information routinely collected from physicians, pharmacies, labs, and other health care providers. This electronic record provides health care professionals a consolidated view of patients' health care services across physicians and providers, as well as participating health plans that will help improve patient safety, eliminate duplicate medical procedures, and aid in reducing unnecessary services and fraud. The launch of this capability has facilitated an improved sharing and interoperability of health information between physicians, health care professionals and multiple payers, bringing efficiencies and cost savings to the health care industry in the state of Florida.
BCBSF and Humana are leveraging the Availity
® Health Information Network, a secure internet-based information exchange, as the delivery channel and infrastructure for the electronic health record. By using information and resources that already exist with payers, no new data collection processes are required and existing web technologies in physicians' offices will support the capability. As is the case for all of Availity's web-based applications, existing users will not need to add software or other technological enhancements to take immediate advantage of the Availity Care Profile product, nor do users need to learn new workflows.
Pilot survey results have shown the Availity Care Profile provides a tangible benefit at the point of care and can aid in the delivery of care, providing additional, clinically-relevant data. The following are a few excerpts from the overall survey results:
- Medication history and provider history (e.g., specialist seen) were commonly cited as the most useful information. Physicians reported patients often did not know the names of the medications they were taking and rarely knew the dosage information. Patients also did not know their specialists' names and contact information.
- Two-thirds of the responding sites reported there was enough information in the Care Profile to help physicians make treatment decisions.
- 100 percent of the sites surveyed would recommend use of the Care Profile to colleagues.
Availity plans to incorporate future capabilities into the Care Profile in 2007 and beyond, to allow greater portability and secure sharing of patient data. Initial efforts will be directed at accessing a Master Patient Index (MPI) to reference additional medical history, regardless of the payer providing coverage or physical location of treatment. Future inclusion of lab results will also provide additional information at the physician's fingertips at the time of patient care. By integrating all of this information with electronic medical record systems at the physician office or hospital, additional benefits will become apparent, such as identifying treatment opportunities, missed prescription refills, potential drug interactions, and more. The expanded Care Profile application will facilitate other clinical advancements at Availity, including e-Lab and e-Prescribing initiatives.
Availity is rolling out the Care Profile gradually during an extended deployment phase. Approximately 120 Tampa-area providers will be using Care Profile by the end of 2006. The company will reevaluate the feedback during the controlled deployment phase and will deploy the service to additional sites in 2007.
About Availity, L.L.C. - Patients. Not paperwork.®
Availity optimizes the flow of information between health care professionals, health plans, and other health care stakeholders through a secure internet-based exchange. The Availity Health Information Network encompasses administrative and clinical services, supports both real-time and batch transactions via the Web and electronic data interchange (EDI), and is HIPAA compliant. Availity is the recipient of several national and regional awards, including Consumer Directed Health Care, A.S.A.P. Alliance Innovation, eHealthcare Leadership, Northeast Florida Excellence in IT Leadership, E-Fusion, Emerging Technologies and Healthcare Innovations Excellence (TETHIE), and AstraZeneca-NMHCC Partnership. For more information, including an online demonstration, visit
www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548), or visit THIN on the web at
www.thinedi.com or call 1.877.EDITHIN (334.8446).
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