HL7 (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Washington-based America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work on portability standards for PHR among health insurance plans.
AHIP and BCBSA have developed an implementation guide (“Implementation Guide for the Personal Health Record Data Transfer Between Health Plans”) containing technical standards, a data dictionary and operating rules for the transfer of PHR data elements between health insurance plans. Its use by health plans allows individuals to move PHR data when their health coverage changes, in compliance with state and federal privacy and security laws, they state.
AHIP and BCBSA have agreed to turn over long-term maintenance of the technical-standards components (of the Implementation Guide) to HL7 and ASC X12 for further development and balloting.
