family doctors news from FierceHealthIT

Of late, doctors are increasingly offering e-mail based care, seeing it as a logical extension of the patient phone calls they're already making. What's interesting is that insurance companies agree, and have begun to pay for "e-care," as such services are often called. In Minnesota, some insurers will pay for e-care if it offers a new diagnosis, prescription or treatment. Meanwhile, three Minnesota health systems--Fairview, Allina and HealthPartners--have begun offering the "MyCharts" …

Pretty much everyone seems to agree that boosting EMR adoption among medical practices would be a good thing. The question is, who will drive the train? My feeling is that while most of the major stakeholders have something to gain, only the health …

CVS subsidiary MinuteClinic, which claims to be the nation's largest retail clinic operator, has joined with the American Academy of Family Physicians to set up a health data exchange between clinic sites and family doctors. The groups are basing the exchange on ASTM International's Continuity of Care Record standard, which is designed to provide "the most relevant administrative, …