California's Insurance Commissioner wants to make it easier for people to access their health records online. From Sacramento, Kelley Weiss reports.
They're like an online bank account, except they detail doctor's visits, prescription drugs and test results. But personal health records aren't the same with every health insurer. So, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner says his office will oversee a program to standardize them. Poizner says this will make it easy for patients to securely transfer records and it cuts costs .
Poizner: "One reason why that happens is because of all of the unnecessary tests that are performed and the errors that are made because people don't have access to basic health information."
In response to concerns about privacy, Poizner says the system will be tightly controlled. He says the health insurers will pay for the changes. The initiative includes people who are insured by Kaiser, Wellpoint, Health Net, Aetna, Cigna or UnitedHealth.
In Sacramento, I'm Kelley Weiss.
