Veterans Will soon be Able to Download Their Personal Health Information

HHS, VA will add download feature to patient portals 06/08/2010. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Veterans Affairs Department plan to add a feature to their electronic patient portals to let beneficiaries download their personal health information into a patient health record or other electronic media of their choosing. To date, veterans and seniors have been able only to review their data on CMS’s MyMedicare.gov and VA’s MyHealtheVet patient Web portals. The “blue button” initiative, named for a new electronic button on the portal sites, will let patients use their data in any way they choose, said Todd Park, HHS’s chief technology officer. Government Health IT