UnitedHealth a First Mover for “PHRs for Life”. Way to go!

CONGRATULATIONS to UnitedHealth!  They’ve announced that they are making their personal health records (PHRs) transportable:

The OptumHealth and UnitedHealthcare units of Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group have made their personal health records service accessible for life.

That means an individual covered by UHC insurance or OptumHealth’s outsourced health and wellness services will be able to access their PHR–and continue to enter data into it–if they change jobs or insurance coverage.

Prediction:  over time, the market will force all employers, payers, and providers to provide interoperable and transportable PHRs; proprietary PHRs will not survive in the marketplace.

Why?

One of the things that many haven’t realized is that the Personal Health Information Ecosystem (PHI-E) is a market with strong network effects.  The value of the network increases exponentially as the number of users grow.  Anyone building a proprietary PHR today is doing the equivalent of building their own brand of a non-interoperable fax machine.

Consumer indignation also will force PHRs to be interoperable and transportable.  Few have created their own PHRs to date, but wait until a few rabble rouser consumers who leave a health plan, employer, or provider are told “Sorry, if you leave, your health information can’t go with you…”  Then watch the spit hit the fan!

How would you react if your college said: “we’ll transfer your grades to prospective employers as long as you’re going to school here, but when you graduate there will be no more access to your grades by you or anyone else.”  Of course, this would never fly.  A few years from now this is exactly how we’ll react to the prospect of a non-interoperable, non-transportable PHR.