Most Important Features of Payer-Offered Electronic Medical Records

A new survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) finds a majority of respondents believe electronic medical records systems (EMRs) offered by health insurance plans should have robust privacy and security features.

Survey respondents were most likely to believe that EMRs (also known as electronic health records, or EHRs) offered by insurance plans should include insurance company data, such as claims data. However, about two-thirds of respondents also said they believed that payer-offered EMR systems should include clinical data derived from hospital and ambulatory visits, as well as consumer-generated data, writes iHealthBeat.org


Twenty-four percent of survey respondents said they thought payer-offered EHRs would boost patient safety, while 21 percent said they expected them to verify insurance eligibility and benefits. Improved billing collections and improved quality of care each were selected by 18 percent of respondents.

The results were based on a survey of 101 physicians in July, 2007, by HIMSS.