Florida wants MDs to have web access to Medicaid patients' EHRs

Officials in Florida are looking to expand the number of electronic health records for Medicaid patients viewable by state doctors to 2.3 million for this coming year. Currently, doctors can only see their own claims for specific patients (they are also able to submit claims online and check on a patient's Medicaid eligibility status).

According to Christine Nye, director of the Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis (which is part of the state's Agency for Health Care Administration), the AHCA wants to expand on a 2007 pilot program for using web-based EHRs in Leon County. She thinks that the lessons learned from Leon County--mainly on usability issues, such as signing on and displaying records--can be utilized throughout the state. She also thinks that the expansion of the provider portal is particularly important.

"A lot of states are trying to figure out how to do this because it is really important for patient care," she said, "but we're hoping we're going to be far ahead of the other states, and we think we will be."

For more on this issue:
- read this article from Government HealthIT

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