Golden State Helps Carriers Take On Google

Most carriers with PHR systems say fewer than 5% of plan members are using the systems, but about 22% of the plan members at Kaiser use the Kaiser PHR system, officials report.

Carriers that have PHR systems have provided anecdotal evidence of situations in which the systems have improved the quality and lowered the cost of care, or have helped plan members cope with disasters that disrupted access to records stored at home and in health care providers’ offices, officials say.

Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif., entered the personal health record market Monday by unveiling its own, free Google Health service.

The Google service gives patients the ability to enter their own information; permits patients to draw in data automatically from participating health insurers, care providers and pharmacy chains; and provides easy Web access to a variety of health care and health-related services, such as medical record retrieval services and heart attack risk calculators.