Blue Button Health Data at Your Fingertips MAY 2013

FACT SHEET

Blue Button is an easy, secure way to download your health data. Already, several federal agencies and many private organizations are using it. For consumers, gaining access to the health information necessary for our health and health care, and the tools to make that information useful, are key benefits of health information technology (health IT).

Blue Button is a monumental advancement in getting consumers the access they need and deserve. How does it work, and what more needs to be done to enhance consumer access and use of health information?

Potential Game Changer for Consumers A Simple Concept with Transformational Potential  The idea behind Blue Button is simple: a patient is provided with a highly visible button to download his or her medical records in digital form from a secure website offered by doctors, insurers, pharmacies or other health-related service.1  Right now, all Medicare beneficiaries, service members, and Veterans can go online and download their health data with the click of a Blue Button.  When Stage 2 of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) “Meaningful Use” Incentive Program goes live in 2013-2014, even more patients and families will have the opportunity to view, download, or transmit (V/D/T) their health data as they see fit.2  Electronic access anytime, anywhere to health information, such as diagnoses, medication lists, lab test results, and immunization records, promotes use of health IT in ways that really matter to consumers, patients, and families. Blue Button facilitates:

 Meaningful Partnerships: Consumers can be true partners in health and health care only if they have access to comprehensive and accurate information they need to be engaged in their care.

 Consumer Empowerment: Consumers need a comprehensive and accurate view of their health and health care, and should be able to use and transmit their health information based on personal preferences.

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 Health Information Exchange: Patients and families electronically accessing their health information anytime, anywhere should encourage additional health information exchange – both between patients and providers, and among the individual providers helping the patient.

Next Steps: Blue Button 2.0 & Beyond  While tools like the Blue Button are an important first step in giving consumers access to their health information, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth recommends additional efforts to maximize the potential of online access:

 Promote Access: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as health plans, employers, and health care providers, should widely promote Blue Button and other opportunities for consumers to electronically access and direct their personal health information. All providers and hospitals should provide online access.

 Support Consumer Demand: HHS should make public the database of doctors and hospitals that have committed to meaningful use of certified EHR technology, so that consumers can know and choose providers offering V/D/T capability.

 Usable Information: Promoting Blue Button alone is not enough; consumers also need the tools and applications that upload, organize, and display health information in ways that are understandable and useful to patients, families, and providers.

 Linguistically & Culturally Appropriate: Application developers and others should ensure that access is linguistically and culturally appropriate, so that consumers can V/D/T their health information using diverse and accessible technology platforms, including mobile technologies, and in the patient’s preferred language.

 Comprehensive Access: Consumers should be able to access their entire medical records, including providers’ visit notes. In a study of the Open Notes initiative,3 the vast majority of participants having access to their visit notes reported an increased sense of control, greater understanding of their medical issues, improved recall of their plans for care, and better preparation for future visits.

 Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD): EHRs should integrate PGHD in the areas that are most valuable to patients and providers. For example, providing patients with ability to offer amendments to their health record or reconcile competing information online, as patients are often the first to identify errors in their own records.

 Promote Auto Blue Button: The automated Blue Button feature (which enables patients to direct their health information to a location of their choosing, such as from specialists to their primary care portals, or non-provider affiliated personal health records) should be a part of all HHS policies and models that advance V/D/T capability, and should be rapidly adopted by private sector organizations.

NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES | CONSUMER PARTNERSHIP FOR eHEALTH 2 The work of the Consumer Partnership for eHealth is generously supported by The Markle Foundation.

1 http://bluebuttondata.org/about.php 2 Office of the National Coordinator. Stage 2 Reference Grid: Meaningful Use Stage 2 and Correlated 2014 Edition EHR Certification Criteria. http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/mus2_scc14_grid_2-1-13.pdf 3 Delbanco, T., Walker, J., Bell, S. K., Darer, J. D., Elmore, J. G., Farag, N., Feldman, H. J., Mejilla, R., Ngo, L., Ralston, J. D., Ross, S. E., Trivedi, N., Vodicka, E., Leveille, S. G., Inviting Patients to Read Their Doctors' Notes: A Quasi-experimental Study and a Look Ahead. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2012 Oct; 157(7): 461-470.

NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES | CONSUMER PARTNERSHIP FOR eHEALTH 3 The work of the Consumer Partnership for eHealth is generously supported by The Markle Foundation.