The New Year brings greater access to medical records for seniors in Arizona and Utah with the start of a Medicare pilot program allowing beneficiaries to choose one of four personal health record (PHR) companies to maintain their health records electronically.

"This pilot is a major step forward for Medicare.  It will provide information and tools that will empower consumers to manage their health better," Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, stated in a press release.  "Importantly, the pilot provides beneficiaries with a choice of products to meet their individual needs."

Medicare's use of PHRs – online tools more commonly used by individual consumers to manage their health records – will allow the nation's largest insurance provider to enter health information regarding a patient from its claims database. Up to two years of beneficiary claims data can be entered into an individual's PHR.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency administering Medicare, has chosen Google Health, HealthTrio, NoMoreClipboard.com and PassportMD as the pilot's participating PHRs.

The online records are expected to reduce paperwork and prevent unnecessary medical procedures.

"In the long run, it (electronic information sharing) will save time, money and increase doctors' ability to improve their patients' care," Dr. Anita Murcko, director of Clinical Informatics and Provider Adoption for Arizona's Health Care Cost Containment System, said.

Arizona was chosen for the pilot program because of its large senior citizen population. An estimated 12.8 percent of the state's population is over 65 years of age, according to the Census Bureau.

State health officials said the program also is being conducted in Arizona because of the state's e-health momentum. Arizona is ranked eighth in the country for e-prescription infrastructure as a result of the 2006 creation of the Health-e Connections Roadmap, a strategy enabling electronic data for health care consumers, payers, providers, researchers and government agencies.

The one-year pilot program will cost Medicare about $2.5 million in administrative costs. If the pilot is deemed successful at the end of the year, CMS hopes to expand the program to other states, with potential to add 1 million users by 2012.