Blues plan offers EMR access to members, doctors ...

This is a different concept, a "read only" EMR available to physicians?  Wh does contribute and when?  Good questions to ponder...BD

The system will provide medical and prescribing history to physicians at no cost, but on a read-only basis.

Health Care Service Corp., a BlueCross BlueShield plan operator, said it is integrating the medical information of more than 11 million members of its plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas into a single electronic health record that will be available, free of charge, to plan members and their physicians.

Chicago-based HCSC will allow physicians access to online records, given that many practices have been unable to acquire them due to cost or other reasons. The company is calling the system an EHR, though it is essentially the same thing as a more common term, the electronic medical record, or EMR.

However, the system is limited in that physicians are only able to view the records. They are unable to contribute to them.

Source: AMNews: May 14, 2007. Blues plan offers EMR access to members, doctors ... American Medical News