Your online medical record

The Interoperability and Patient Access Rule

This new CMS ruling equires It requires Medicaid plans, like Highmark Health Options, to give members online access to their medical record. This includes viewing claims information. It is for people who use Medicaid managed care programs. It is also for users of other programs, like: 

• Medicaid
• Medicare Advantage
• CHIP
• ACA (ACA coverage is bought on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.)
  

Using this rule

This rule puts you first. As a Highmark Health Options Medicaid member, you can see your medical record online at any time. When you want to quickly view your records, you can:

• Use any device 
• Use your account  to make informed care decisions
• Control your information 

CMS describes it this way: “Consumers routinely perform many daily tasks on their mobile phones—banking, shopping, paying bills, scheduling—using secure applications. We believe that obtaining their health care information should be just as easy, convenient, and user-friendly.” 

The goal is to give patients more choice and to promote health care competition.

How it works

Because of the CMS rule, new applications (apps) are being built for many purposes related to health care. The application programming interface, or API, is called Blue Button 2.0 API. Think of it like an app store for health care systems. It lets you find and use apps that follow CMS security and privacy guidelines.