Portable EMR Databases

Insurers Urge Creation of Portable Databases to Improve Care
According to a recent Commonwealth Fund article [MAY 1, 2006] BlueCross BlueShield local health plan leaders made the case on Monday for health insurers to establish uniform portable health databases to ease the burden on doctors and patients. Does this surprise anyone? Okay, let's just reflect on this for a moment...
For years we've eagerly awaited the arrival of real EMR's in healthcare and for years we've been left at the alter. Why? Because these things are incredibly difficult to create and unbelieveably labor intensive to populate with information.

So, what's the big deal with portable EMR's? Once again, the cost and rewards are out of whack and insurers know this. Insurers pay nothing for the cost of development for EMR's nor the labor to populate the EMR's with data. On the other hand, portable EMR databases would completely undermine the property rights of healthcare providers and knock the wind out of the sails of those who have worked tirelessly to create functional (not perfect) EMR's.

With medical loss ratio's as low as they are, insurers making as much money as they do, we can't help but be skeptical of the latest attempt to move/shift the balance in favor of the insurance companies.