Prepare for Patient Questions on Medicare's PHR Pilot Program

Family physicians who practice in Arizona and Utah should be aware that their Medicare fee-for-service patients will be receiving information about the Medicare PHR Choice Pilot directly from outgoing HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt during the next few weeks.

As a result, some of those patients may have questions about personal health records, or PHRs, that they bring to their next office visit.

On Jan. 13, CMS held a news conference in Salt Lake City to officially launch the program that it first announced last November. Medicare beneficiaries can voluntarily participate in the pilot by choosing a PHR product from one of four vendors.

According to Diane Livesay, CMS' deputy regional administrator for the Denver region, CMS will saturate the market with information about the pilot.

"Leavitt will be sending out a letter in the next week or two to every individual in Arizona and Utah who is eligible to participate in the program," she said during the press conference.

Patrick Conway, chief medical officer of CMS' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, also participated in the press conference. He said the pilot was slated to end in a year but could be extended, depending on its level of success.

CMS officials are hopeful that at least 5,000 beneficiaries will take advantage of the opportunity to create a PHR, which could -- at the patient's request -- be populated with two years of previous Medicare claims data, said Conway.

But, he added, CMS' goal is less about the number of participants and more about an effort to empower beneficiaries to choose a PHR platform and to evaluate how using the PHR improves their health.

CMS also is interested in seeing if PHRs can save the Medicare program money.