Pros: The Blue Button from Medicare allows members to easily understand their health history and hence collaborate more effectively with healthcare providers. Members can quickly and securely save their self-entered health information into their personal computer and other storage devices. The downloadable file is an ASCII text file, which is the simplest text format around. Furthermore, the data is organized in such a way that is easy to read and understand. Users can also print this file so they would have a hard copy of their claims information and health data. The Blue Button provides a way for members to create a portable health record – in soft or hard copy format – that they can present to their caregivers and healthcare providers as an accurate reference.

Cons: Since the tool merely serves to facilitate the easy download of health and claims information, Medicare can only protect user privacy by restricting access of information only to registered and authenticated users. Bulk of the responsibility for the security of the data relies on Medicare members. Once members have downloaded their data, Medicare won’t have any control of its security. Members themselves have to conduct security measures by, say, password protection or encryption.

The Bottomline: The Blue Button found at Medicare’s secure website (http://medicare.gov) makes it easy for members to quickly access, view, obtain, and print their claims data and self-entered medical history. The downloaded data can be used to make portable medical histories that patients can use and share with their providers and caregivers and hence increase the quality of patient care. Because it’s extremely useful, as many as 6,000 Medicare members have taken advantage of the web-based tool and have reaped its benefits.

Editor’s Rating:

Reviewed on October 21, 2011

Summary:
The Blue Button is a web-based tool that provides Medicare members a quick and easy way to download all of their health information and then share it with caregivers, healthcare providers, and other authorized persons. Members can then save the data to their personal computer and import the same file into other personal health record tools that are computer-based.

Features:
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Easy Access to Claims and Self-Entered Information

The Blue Button permits members to easily view their personal and health-related information such as emergency contacts, names and contact details of physicians, pharmacies, self-reported immunizations and allergies, prescriptions drugs, and medical conditions. Users may view a soft copy of the file using a home computer or may print it out for easier reading.



Compatibility with Third-Party Applications

In line with the Obama Administration’s move to foster innovation, the Blue Button was designed to promote and accommodate new improvements made by third-party application developers. Among these third-party applications is the Blue Button Health Assistant by Adobe. This software provides users with an intuitive layout and eases the sharing of information among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. The Blue Button is also compatible with Microsoft HealthVault. Users can easily upload their Blue Button file to HealthVault so that lab results, medical conditions, prescription drugs, and other data can be utilized by HealthVault applications.