Innovations Advocare is the vehicle to push the technology through as they build portals for connectivity. Below is a short clip from a prior post. The chips are now updated to connect to a PHR, like HealthVault.
Some hospitals are using a hand log on, like what El Camino is doing in the silicon valley, so there might be some duals here between which is the best
option.
As noted below once this rolls a bit there is an option for patients to “opt out” but then the question rises as to how long would this option be tolerated by either providers, insurers or both come to think of it. There is a special device that is required to connect the chip to read the medical records. You can read more at the link below. BD
VeriChip Implant Links To Your PHR Health Records, Credit History, Social Security With PositiveID
Ok, we are back once more to the implanted chip, which for a couple of reasons somewhat died on the vine, but now is making a comeback with new technology offerings. Again, this is very much a personal choice on to chip or not to chip. The only individual who has made any of his own experiences public is Dr. John Halamka, who was an early pioneer in trying the product. One thing you certainly have to give Dr. Halamka credit for and that is the fact that he is in no way a “Magpie”, he participates and gets out there hands on, or in this case “chips on” to see what new technology does and evaluate it’s value.
When the product first came out, it was a simple repository of your medical records, which requires a device to be able to view the information, this way it is secure. You can visit their website for additional information.
New technologies have boosted the capability of the chip now, so you can connect to your personal health records through the chip.
“Health Link is the connection between you and your personal health record. Health Link utilizes a tiny, passive microchip (the first and only microchip cleared for patient identification by the FDA) and a secure online database that links you to your personal health record.”
PositiveID (PSID), the microchip implant health record marketer formerly known as VeriChip, has entered into a “strategic alliance” with Innovations Avocare to use the chips in Florida’s various regional healthcare organizations. PositiveID said that integrating its Health Link microchip into the system will serve more than 1 million patients.
Avocare’s main business is building “Physicians Portal” web sites on which doctors and hospitals can access patient health records. These web sites are sold through to various regional healthcare providers, reimbursers and insurers. One example is the Central Florida Regional Health Information Organization, which would connect to the PositiveID/Avocare alliance’s services. Its members include Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare – all the major players, in other words.
Within that network, Avocare envisions a single access point with one login for doctors. According to a diagram in an Avocare white paper, that online system is connected to “State Medicaid,” “Immunization Records,” “Rx Claims” and “Others.”
A key point for privacy advocates is that patients have the ability to opt out, according to page 9 of the presentation. That, however, raises the question of how long medical providers and reimbursers would tolerate patients who chose the opt-out option.
How many people are currently implanted with a Health Link chip? That is not known. However, revenues at PositiveID leaped from $41 million to $161 million through the first nine months of this year.
Am I the only person who thinks this "chip" is the beginning of the end? The mark of the beast?
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