Article - May 9, 2007 - Orlando Sentinel

Blue Cross, Humana expand Availity's role
Electronic health record system is rolled out statewide

Harry Wessel

Two of Florida's largest health-insurance companies announced plans this week to jointly create the nation's first statewide, "multiple payer" system for electronic health records.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc. and Humana Inc. said their Internet-based Availity Care Profile had been successfully tested among 400 health-care providers in the Tampa Bay area, and would be deployed statewide.

Availity has been used for years as an electronic billing system for health-care providers. But much of that administrative information is useful for medical purposes, because it includes the doctors a patient has seen, procedures that have been ordered, and medications that have been prescribed, said Lisa Rawlins, director of the state Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis.

Making such information available to patients and providers "gives us an opportunity to fill the gaps until we have a full introduction of electronic medical records in the future," Rawlins said.

The yearlong expansion of the Availity Care Profile from its base in the Tampa Bay area will start with metro areas in South and North Florida. Members in Metro Orlando will be linked to the system in late 2007 or early 2008, officials with Blue Cross and Humana said.

The electronic system promises to improve patient safety, eliminate duplicative medical procedures and cut down on fraud, according to company representatives. "It improves the physician-patient experience by allowing members and physicians to make better-informed health-care decisions," said Catherine Peper, vice president of health information technology for Blue Cross.

Dr. Carmella Sebastian, medical director for Humana's Central and North Florida market, said the new system "is a huge step forward" in giving providers and patients a limited but highly useful medical record "that's available anywhere, anytime, because it's based on Internet access."

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