The Tangled Web of Google Health: Online Medical Records Could Change Healthcare Receivables Strategies

The ever-evolving face of the U.S. healthcare industry has recently met with another moment of change following the introduction by Microsoft, Google, and Aetna of various online systems that will house consumers’ medical histories. These emergent Personal Health Record (PHR) systems seek to address the new consumerism in healthcare by returning active control and access to individuals’ health records directly to patients. Critics, however, contend that the structure of PHR systems themselves weakens consumers’ control over sensitive medical information, forewarning patients of the uncertain privacy protections attached to some PHR programs.

While both risks and benefits of PHR technology are in play for healthcare providers and the patients they serve, little attention has been paid to the impact that PHRs are likely to have on healthcare receivables and on the specialized companies in the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry that partner with healthcare creditors to recover medical bad debt.

This Kaulkin Media executive brief on PHRs focuses on:

• A comprehensive background on the features of PHR systems
• Several examples of recent commercial PHR models, detailing partnerships between technology and insurance corporations and healthcare providers
• The implications, both positive and negative, of PHRs on healthcare receivables, including: reducing the sticker shock of technology investments, especially for small to mid-size physician groups; lessening staffing and paperwork costs for providers; augmenting analytic systems that determine charity care and other financial assistance procedures to pre-empt nonperforming accounts; and documenting the validity of patients’ financial responsibility should receivables slip into delinquency

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