Medicare testing EHR expansion

The Bush administration has announced that beginning in January it will expand access to electronic health records for Medicare beneficiaries in Arizona and Utah as part of its effort to encourage HIT growth. The program is similar to a pilot project launched last year in South Carolina (Source: “Medicare expands online health records programs,” The Hill, Aug. 10, 2008).

The plan calls for patients to be able to access up to two years of information from Medicare. The beneficiaries also will be able to add to their records and share them with doctors, pharmacists and other providers.