Google Health Teams Up With Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts

The Boston Globe reported today that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts is working with Google Health to provide online access to medical records for its insureds by this Fall.

Google Health was launched by Google last month as a web portal where patient information could be stored and accessed by the patient or those authorized by the patient. BCBSM is the first large insurer to team up with Google for the service. The Google Health site encourages more partners to collaborate:

"Many leading providers in the healthcare industry and the companies that provide solutions to them are trying to make healthcare safer and more efficient. One way to do this is by helping patients and doctors to get easy access medical data. By integrating with Google Health, you help make medical data follow the patient where ever he or she goes and this in turn helps doctors and other caregivers do a better job of delivering quality care."

Google Health claims it is not a covered entity under HIPAA (See, Paragraph 4 of the Terms of Service). I do not agree with that analysis, but I am not a HIPAA specialist - and, the lawyers behind the scenes are legion and probably are HIPAA experts. There are some serious critiques of Google's ability to protect such data. These are two issues of concern that would need to be addressed for more collaboration. But, the cost savings of online patient records access is a necessary component of any plan to control healthcare premiums. BCBSM and Google's collaboration is encouraging.