The following is a guest blog by Monica Stout from MedicaSoft.
We live in an age when our employers can offer a myriad of employee benefits – from pet insurance to wellness incentives. There is no shortage in what employers can offer as a benefit to their employees. Some employers, such as the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), are offering Personal Health Records (PHRs) to their employees as part of a package of health and wellness benefits.
Why offer a PHR to employees? PHRs can help people better gather all of their health information in one place – records from doctors and hospitals, lab results, data from personal devices (like FitBit) and apps, etc. They can help people understand what’s in their health records, manage their own health information, share it with people they trust, and plan for an emergency or for when future health needs arise.
All of this is done in one place that is completely under the employee’s control. Employee-owned PHRs can also allow patients to review their health information for accuracy and share information with trusted healthcare providers. Additionally, employer-hosted, patient-controlled PHRs can help employees or patients aggregate and consolidate the portals and health information they have spanning each doctor’s office, hospital, or health system they’ve visited so that all of their information resides in one place.
A common concern or barrier to employee adoption of PHRs is the fear that employers will look at an employee’s private health information. Fret not. Though it is natural to fear that your employer may look at your information, privacy safeguards are in place to prevent that from happening. PHRs like HealthCenter and USPS Health Connect let you control who sees your information, and provide monitoring to track all access.
What do you think? Would you like a PHR offered to you at work? How would it help you better manage your health or the health of your dependents or loved ones?
About Monica Stout
Monica is a HIT teleworker in Grand Rapids, Michigan by way of Washington, D.C., who has consulted at several government agencies, including the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). She’s currently the Marketing Director at MedicaSoft. Monica can be found on Twitter @MI_turnaround or LinkedIn.
About MedicaSoft
MedicaSoft designs, develops, delivers, and maintains EHR, PHR, and UHR software solutions and HISP services for healthcare providers and patients around the world. MedicaSoft is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene. For more information, visit www.medicasoft.us or connect with us on Twitter @MedicaSoftLLC, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
