While healthcare providers, insurers and regulators tediously lumber toward the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), stumbling over hurdles that range from cost to interoperability, OptumHealth (Minneapolis) is putting consumers in the driver’s seat by offering a personal health record (PHR) service.

OptumHealth has offered the records to its clients since 2005. What’s new is that its systems are now portable, meaning from one doctor to another, one employer to another.

“We recognize that throughout a lifetime, individuals change their employers,” Harlan Levine, MD, chief medical officer of OptumHealth’s Care Solutions division, told Medical Device Daily. They used to have to start over with their records when they started with a new employer, health plan or doctors. Now they have access to a personal health record through the Internet.”

A division of UnitedHealth Group, OptumHealth has made the service available — through its free, secure consumer Internet portal, www.healthatoz.com — to more than 21 million consumers, though Levine declined to say how many people have actually taken advantage of the records service.

Secure, Internet-based access to PHRs is especially valuable when information is needed during emergencies, at night or on weekends, Levine said, when other sources of information are often unavailable – for instance, from a patient’s own memory bank.

“For example,” said Ann Fleischauer, director of external communications for Optumhealth, “if I had a mammogram several years ago, but can’t remember where it was done, the personal health record will show that.”

And for patients with chronic illnesses who visit multiple doctors and take a variety of medications, doctors within OptumHealth will get a more holistic view of their patients’ health records quickly.

The above sentence includes somewhat of catch — the PHR is available only to those in the UnitedHealth Group insurance system.

But within that qualification the OptumHealth PHR offers lifetime access to an individual’s health claims information, and it integrates with OptumHealth’s suite of consumer-oriented tools and services. These include private health portals, health risk assessment, interactive health coaches and biometric data from worksite wellness fairs that automatically connect with the individual’s personal health record.

“OptumHealth is in the business of delivering personal health services,” Levine said. “We recognize one of the weaknesses in healthcare is data. This is an opportunity for individuals to manage their own data.”

People can view and add to their records, which are gathered based on claims data, via secure encrypted access through the Internet.

Where EMRs are clinically oriented, these PHRs are consumer-oriented, he said. When information is submitted from a claim, it’s appended to a PHR, including things like lab tests, procedures and hospital stays.

But will the PHRs mesh with EMRs whenever – if ever – they catch up and become more common?

Not yet.

“While the environment is being sorted out, we’ve decided to start with the consumer,” Levine said. “The data belongs to the consumer. The consumer is always going to be the central point that moves between health systems, employers and doctors.”

The challenge now is to make the potential users aware and to educate them about the benefits of a PHR, Levine acknowledged.

“It’s going to take different incentives to get people to use this,” Levine said.

But he said that among these incentives are a bunch of added-value offerings by the company.

“The personal health record integrates seamlessly with other tools OptumHealth offers. It’s an important tool in helping consumers prepare for doctor’s visits. We’ve all gone to new doctors and try to quickly come up with our medical history when filling out forms.

“From day one, you’ll also be able to print out records of prior health issues and medications.”