The results of a recent survey suggest that Medicare beneficiaries who use Kaiser Permanente’s personal health record are overwhelmingly satisfied with the service, and are in general quite comfortable using the Internet to manage their health care online.

The health plan’s PHR—known as My Health Manager—is available only to Kaiser enrollees and so far as we know, is the only PHR that links directly to an electronic health record (in this case it is HealthConnect, Kaiser’s modified version of an Epic product).

Kaiser presented the gratifying findings last week at the World Health Care Congress’ 5th Annual Leadership Summit on Medicare in Washington, D.C.

Twenty-three percent of the seniors responded to the e-mail survey, which was distributed to more than 15,000 people.

The survey examined respondents’ Internet utilization habits and comfort with computers, as well as current health status and use of prescription drugs.

Nearly 88% of survey respondents reported being satisfied or very satisfied with Kaiser’s PHR.

“The extraordinarily high satisfaction rate of the survey respondents — all 65 and older — reinforces what we are learning among the general population: When a PHR like My Health Manager is thoughtfully designed for an easy and convenient user experience, individuals will engage more fully in managing their own health,” said Jan Oldenburg, who is the senior practice leader of Kaiser’s Internet Services Group.

“The biggest surprise from the survey was discovering that the typical Kaiser Permanente Medicare beneficiary who is registered to use My Health Manager is very comfortable with computers, using the Internet daily and reviewing their medical record online a few times each month.”

The survey revealed that respondents were most pleased with the PHR’s prescription refill feature, but also rated highly the ease with which they could schedule appointments online, email their physicians, and view test results online.

Soon, Practice Fusion will release its own Personal Health Record, tentatively called Patient Fusion. Like the Kaiser product, Patient Fusion will be linked directly to Practice Fusion’s EHR. Patient Fusion will be available at no cost to patients whose physicians use the Practice Fusion EHR.

Patients using a PHR that is directly linked to an EHR can be assured that it contains accurate information about their medical histories and conditions. In such instances, the PHR data is precisely the same as that which has been entered by their physicians. The direct link eliminates data errors that have plagued users of Microsoft and Google PHR products which rely on the download and subsequent translation of billing codes rather than actual clinical information entered by physicians.

Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD
Sr. VP, Clinical Affairs, Practice Fusion