The recent launches of Microsoft’s HealthVault and Google’s Google Health have increased the discussion over the past year on consumer driven healthcare—where consumers take a more active if not aggressive role in the management of their personal healthcare. The discussion of late, however, has fixated on the very real concern of privacy and security of personal health records.

However, when consumers order personal health records from MediConnect through Google Health they can be assured their records are kept completely private and secure. MediConnect, along with most healthcare providers integrated with Google Health, is HIPAA compliant.

So why are people worried? The concern probably comes at the point when the consumer places the information on their Google Health account. Many question whether the information can remain private.

This concern isn’t much different than a similar one shared when consumers first began providing their credit card numbers online to make purchases in the early e-commerce days. People were afraid their credit card numbers would be compromised, stolen, and used inappropriately. In that case, the industry worked together to protect the consumer to the point today when most people don’t think twice about giving a credit card number to make a purchase online.

The same is true of consumer driven healthcare. Recently, several organizations including Microsoft and Google agreed upon a set of privacy rules or standards related to online personal health records.

The privacy rules are outlined in a framework developed by Connecting for Health operated by the Markle Foundation.

In a Connecting for Health press release, “the framework defines a set of practices that can help protect personal information and enhance consumer participation in online personal health records.

“’Consumer demand for electronic personal health records and online health services will take off when consumers trust that personal information will be protected,’ said Zoë Baird, president of the Markle Foundation, which organized the consensus framework. ‘We have broken the typical logjam in health care and reached consensus among the health sectors and technology innovators, so internet health information products can flourish.’

“The announcement comes as technology companies, health care delivery systems, health insurers, large employers, and others are proliferating options for consumers to keep their own copies of health information and connect to health-related services online.”

There is no question consumer driven healthcare will continue to grow as trust in this framework increases. The personal health record will be at the center of this growing trend.

See the privacy framework from Connecting for Health

See the privacy framework press release

Wall Street Journal Health Blog

http://twitter.com/mediconnect

During the course of the next few weeks, MediConnect Global will be building and launching a new social forum geared for open discussion on topics important to you. Whether it’s the latest large pharmaceutical case, or other personal injury cases, the forum will be a place where you can chat with colleagues and experts in the industry.

There will be a few surprises in the forum that you may be interested in. Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/mediconnect and here on our blog during the next few weeks for more details and for the formal launch of the forum.

MediConnect Global recently (yesterday) began experimenting with Twitter. You can follow MediConnect at http://twitter.com/mediconnect. Those who follow MediConnect will get updates on information and news from the company as well as insights and discussions regarding trends in the legal, life/health insurance and healthcare provider industries.

Twitter is another one of those social phenomenons we’re seeing a lot of these days—along side Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and others. To understand it completely you really need to just try it out, but in simple form it is a social network that allows you to answer the simple question, “What are you doing?” You write whatever you’re doing or whatever you want to say in 140 characters or less and post it. Your friends and colleagues who follow you can see all of your updates. You can also follow your friends’ updates.

At first glance, you may wonder what good this is. In fact, FutureLawyer, Rick Georges, shares the sentiments of many who first encounter Twitter when he says on his blog, “Do you really want to know what I am doing 24-7? I didn’t think so.”

Yet, we’re seeing more and more excellent examples of how Twitter can be used in business to keep customers, clients, partners, and colleagues informed of information from a company in a sort of mini blog format. This is MediConnect’s goal. If you’re a twitterer, we hope you’ll follow MediConnect’s tweets. We’ll follow yours too!

Yet, we’re seeing more and more excellent examples of how Twitter can be used in business to keep customers, clients, partners, and colleagues informed of information from a company in a sort of mini blog format. This is MediConnect’s goal. If you’re a Twitter-er, we hope you’ll follow MediConnect’s “tweets.” We’ll follow yours too!

Sokolove affiliates now have increased access to conveniently order medical records online through MediConnect’s RapidRetrieve or their integrated case management software. (MediConnect integrated CMS includes TrialWorks, Needles, Amicus Attorney, SmartAdvocate, Case Manager Prop, or directly through LexisNexis Total Litigator.)

Following a competitive review, The Law Offices of James Sokolove selected MediConnect Global as a legal vendor to provide medical record retrieval services for its more than 400 affiliated U.S. law firms.

In addition, all affiliates have access to other services related to their medical records retrieval including bates stamping, optical character recognition (OCR), chronological and categorical organization, certifications, medical summaries, and more.

Affiliates can order medical records immediately at www.mediconnect.net or www.mediconnect.net/sign_up.asp.

http://del.icio.us/mediconnect http://twitter.com/mediconnect

After months of anticipation, Google today made its Google Health platform available to the public. Google Health is a new product that helps users store, organize, and manage their medical records online. (www.google.com/health) MediConnect Global, Inc. announced today an integrated service (www.mediconnect.net) on the Google Health platform that helps Google Health users get access to all of their medical records including those that are electronic and paper-based through its time-proven medical retrieval system.

“MediConnect’s medical record retrieval service allows people to have access to information from their personal health history from anywhere in the world at anytime,” said Amy Rees Anderson, MediConnect Global CEO. “Decisions about our healthcare are the most critical decisions we make. Consumers should be able to get intimately involved in decisions regarding their personal healthcare.

“For this to happen, it is vital that the consumer be given an easy way to access their medical records. They also need to have someone assist them in understanding the data within that record by having it pulled out and presented in a simple, organized fashion. This is exactly what the MediConnect service will be offering to Google Health users and we are thrilled to be a part of the launch,” said Ms. Anderson.

Once consumers reach the MediConnect login screen from Google Health, they simply create a username and password and agree to link accounts, thereby allowing MediConnect to obtain medical information from the Google Health user’s profile upon their consent.

For a service fee, MediConnect then directly contacts the user’s healthcare providers to obtain their medical records. Once the records are obtained, MediConnect digitizes them and then gleans key information—such as prescriptions, doctors names, diagnosis and procedures, vital signs, hospitalization dates, immunizations, test results, alerts such as allergies, and other information—and then automatically forwards them to the user’s Google Health account. Users can also download PDF files of their actual records to store on their computer and/or to give to other healthcare providers/practitioners of their choosing.

MediConnect’s medical record retrieval system is HIPAA compliant ensuring consumers’ medical records are retrieved in the most secure and private means available.
Note: GOOGLE and GOOGLE HEALTH are trademarks of Google Inc.
Wall Street Journal Health Blog, eWeek, PC Magazine, IDG News Service

Amy Rees Anderson, CEO of MediConnect Global, today said the key to becoming great in business is to surround yourself with greatness at a luncheon held in her honor as the MountainWest Capitol Network’s 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year. Ms. Anderson is the first woman entrepreneur to receive the award and spoke to about 200 business and community leaders. www.mediconnect.net,  www.mwcn.org

“Education, research, data, and spreadsheets are all great things,” said Ms. Anderson during her acceptance speech. “But in the end, you should listen to the people who have been there, done that, made the mistakes, and learned what actually works firsthand.”

(Listen to Ms. Anderson’s Speech) 

(See Amy Rees Anderson on KSL Eyewitness News) 

Most people give up on the threshold of succeeding she said. “Successful people just don’t give up. They keep trying different approaches to achieving their outcomes until they finally get the results they want.”

“It is a tremendous accomplishment for Amy to win this prestigious award from MWCN,” said James Lee Sorenson, world-renowned entrepreneur and MediConnect chairman of the board. “She has led MediConnect’s progress from a struggling yet promising small U.S. company to a growing and thriving global organization.”

Each year the MountainWest Capital Network recognizes a Utah business executive who has built a successful Utah-based company, and inspired others to participate in the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship.

“Amy is a powerful leader in the business community, whose impact goes far beyond her own industry or the community,” said Devin Thorpe, MWCN president. “She is an inspiring example to entrepreneurs from all walks of life.”

As the first woman recipient of the award, she reiterates the award is a reflection on the entire team at MediConnect Global. She continually looks forward to sharing her expertise with other people, and especially hopes the award will inspire other people to have a passion for entrepreneurship.

“Utah is blessed with a substantial number of dynamic and talented people who are a major factor in driving business development and growth in Utah, and Amy Rees Anderson is one of our very best,” said Mark E. Lehman, chair of the MWCN Entrepreneur of the Year committee. “We are honoring Amy as the Entrepreneur of the Year because she exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that adds so much to our community and enriches us all in so many ways that can never be fully measured.”

Under Ms. Anderson’s direction, MediConnect launched an aggressive domestic and international expansion and posted four consecutive years of record sales growth more than doubling revenues year over year.

Before becoming CEO of MediConnect, Ms. Anderson began an Internet healthcare technology company with only $23,000 in seed capital and went on to raise over $12 million of venture funding she used to develop the nations first 100 percent Web-based medical practice management system for physician offices.

Most of Ms. Anderson’s success has come despite tremendous obstacles. She was a single mother of two for a good portion of her career. During that time she learned to be successful while balancing motherhood and being the sole financial support of her family, with the demanding responsibilities as CEO of a growing international company.

“I firmly believe there is always a way to make things work if you look at it hard enough and open your mind to the idea that there are limitless possibilities to get you to the end result,” said Ms. Anderson. “I guess I’m not afraid to try, and I can only fail if I stop trying.”

Designed to help health insurance carriers complete medical chart risk adjustment before submission, MediConnect Global, Inc. (www.mediconnect.net ) today announced its patented medical record retrieval service is now available to Medicare Advantage Plans. The service allows plans to retrieve large volumes of medical charts quickly and economically to ensure complete and accurate diagnosis coding which dictates proper reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“MediConnect provides carriers with a single source solution for retrieving and digitizing mass volumes of medical records from any or all of their providers,” said Amy Rees Anderson, MediConnect CEO. “Retrieving these records allows them to perform risk adjustment review either before submitting to Medicare for reimbursement or after the initial submission in order to appeal any underpaid reimbursements. A Medicare Advantage plan that does not retrieve and review these records is likely to leave significant money on the table in their reimbursements from CMS.”

Carriers simply provide MediConnect with a list of patients, and patient providers, whose records need to be retrieved. MediConnect then works directly with healthcare providers and clinics to retrieve and digitize all medical charts. MediConnect organizes all record requests by medical group (or individual providers), validates the medical group and provider contact data (as needed), and removes duplicate requests if any.

MediConnect then indexes the records, hosts the digitized record copies online, and transmits the records to the Medicare Advantage plan to ensure complete and accurate diagnosis coding is performed for submission to CMS. This allows carriers to be properly reimbursed for each plan member.

MediConnect’s patented technology and processes are streamlined and time-proven with national and global reach, and can scale up or down quickly depending on the needs of each carrier. The system is able to complete the retrieval of a high percentage of medical records for multiple purposes fast and inexpensively.

MediConnect Global, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of David H. Bywater as Global President of the Salt Lake City based medical records retrieval and analysis company. (www.mediconnect.net)

“Since 2003, MediConnect’s business has increased more than 1,100 percent with a client base that crosses every continent and global operations in both the U.S. and India,” said Amy Rees Anderson, CEO of MediConnect Global. “As we continue this growth and seek new opportunities, David’s proven leadership and global experience is exactly what we need to allow us to continue to service our current and future customers with the products and value that they expect and deserve.”

Well known for his operational excellence and strategic business approach, Mr. Bywater will have responsibility over all MediConnect Global operations.

“David has broad expertise to enable companies to scale up quickly for sustained growth, success and profitability,” said James Lee Sorenson, chairman of the board, MediConnect Global. “MediConnect will rely on his expertise to continue its rapid trajectory to be the leading medical records retrieval company in the world.”

Some of Mr. Bywater’s past positions included executive positions at Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) including Senior Managing Director for ACS’s Human Capital Management Solutions business, Chief Operating Officer for ACS’s HRO business, and Managing Director of ACS’s Healthcare Payer business which is a BPO services provider to U.S. healthcare insurers. Before ACS, Mr. Bywater was Senior Manager for Bain & Company where he focused on helping companies develop growth strategies.

Mr. Bywater has a B.S. Degree in Economics from Brigham Young University, and an M.B.A. Degree from Harvard Business School.

Legal and court professionals throughout the country have relied on Bates Stamping to help keep track of legal documents in cases for more than 100 years. Ever since the original Bates automatic numbering machine was patented in 1891, some form of Bates numbering has been used.

Even today, Bates stamping allows attorneys and court officials to clearly refer to specific points of reference within legal documents including medical records during record review and presentation.

MediConnect Global provides customizable Bates Stamping with its medical record retrieval services that is very easy to setup and automatically applied to your downloadable medical record PDF files.

When you login to your MediConnect account, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click preferences. Scroll down to Customizable Bates/Page Stamping Preferences.

Here you have as many as 11 choices you can make on how your Bates stamp will appear and in what location on the page. A small “example” window allows you to preview how the stamp will appear on your pages.

Once you’ve selected your choices, click on submit and continue to place your medical record retrieval order. Remember to select Bates Stamping.

That’s it! When you download your medical record in PDF format, the page stamping is automatically applied to the medical record.

If you don’t like how your Bate stamp appears you can make an online change and re-download the PDF with a newly formatted stamp.

We’re interested in knowing how you utilize Bate stamping in your firm. If you would like to share your thoughts, go to the comment section and drop us a line or two.

There is just a little more than eight weeks remaining to order PME records for the Merck Vioxx Settlement!

MediConnect Global, Inc. today urged Merck Vioxx Settlement claimants to order retrievals of pharmacy, medical and event records (PME records) as soon as possible. PME records are required in the Claims Package that must be submitted before a looming July 1st deadline.

On March 25, claimants were given an extension to enroll in the settlement until May 1. The extension conveniently gave claimants more time to enroll, however, the July 1st deadline to submit claims packages with their PME record remains the same.

“The extension is great for claimants, who need it, but also means they have a smaller window of time to get their claims packages together and submitted,” said Amy Rees Anderson, CEO of MediConnect Global. “Depending on the size of claimants’ records, it can take as long as six weeks to retrieve them. If record orders haven’t already been placed, they really need to get them in as soon as possible to meet the July 1st submission deadline.”

Last November, Merck & Co., Inc. announced one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements in U.S. history when it set aside a $4.85 billion fund for people who claim they were harmed by Vioxx.

Originally, those claimants wishing to participate had to enroll by February 29, but the deadline was moved to March 31st and again to May 1st.

As the July 1st deadline gets nearer MediConnect anticipates pharmacies and healthcare providers will be deluged with Vioxx related PME requests that could create a large backlog and potentially slow retrieval.

“We strongly encourage all those who have already enrolled or plan to enroll by May 1st to order their PME records immediately,” said Anderson. “The longer they wait, the riskier it will be for them to get their records in time for the deadline.” 

MediConnect Global provides a medical record retrieval solution law firms can use to request all of the PME records they need from a single source. MediConnect contacts each pharmacy, medical and event provider to retrieve the records, digitizes them, and delivers them in a secure, organized, and electronic format.

“We have found MediConnect to be an invaluable resource in meeting the fast approaching deadlines related to the Vioxx Settlement,” said Lowell W. Finson, Assistant Supervising Attorney Defective Drugs & Product Liability Division for Phillips & Associates. “Regardless of any hope that further extensions will be granted, it is dangerous to assume that any delay in getting medical records will be rewarded.”

MediConnect Global has already experienced a surge of Vioxx related record retrieval requests since the beginning of the year and anticipates even more as the deadline draws nearer.

For more information about the Merck Vioxx Settlement deadlines and requirements go to http://www.browngreer.com/vioxxsettlement/ and http://www.merck.com/newsroom/vioxx/, and Phillips Law.