Jane F. Barlow, MD, MPH, MBA, IBM Well-being Director, Health Benefits Operations
Global Well-being Services & Health Benefits
Last week I had the privilege of representing IBM before the House of Representatives Federal Workforce subcommittee. This committee has proposed legislation to make Personal Health Records (PHR) available to all 9 million federal employees. In October 2005, IBM made PHR's available to our US workforce, and the committee was interested in learning about IBM's experience.
We were the only employer represented. The others invited to testify were health plans, vendors or consultants. [Read Jane's full testimony]
Most of the questions and comments concerned privacy and whether the PHR should be available on a voluntary basis if individuals want it, or if it should be "delivered" to all employees. The other major concern was around provider adoption of the PHR and electronic health records. This is an important concern as providers are key to modernizing our healthcare systems in the US to reflect a patient-centric model enabled by technology.
This was my first time testifying "on the Hill." Thanks to Ned McCulloch and our Government Programs team, I was well prepared for this opportunity to represent IBM and tell the story about our efforts to lead in healthcare as an employer.
Your feedback on the testimony, or IBM's implementation of personal health records would be most welcome.
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I have a Insurance Health Guide site. It pretty much covers health insurance and related topics.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Posted by: Josh | April 06, 2006 at 06:27 PM