Method and system for providing online medical records

• US 20070061170A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MyMedicalRecords Incorporated
• Original Assignee: MyMedicalRecords Incorporated
• Inventors: Lorsch, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,117,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

A method for providing a consumer with the ability to access and collect health records associated with the consumer through use of a consumer account is provided. The method includes assigning a destination address individually associated with the consumer account for receiving communications from at least one healthcare provider, associating access information with the consumer account for the consumer to use to access a secure web site, the communications including a health record associated with the consumer for which the consumer has requested and given permission to the healthcare provider to send, storing a representation of the health record, and providing the consumer with secure access to the web site using the access information and providing on the web site an interface to the health records of the consumer for the consumer to use. The destination address can be a phone number or an email address. The web site also provides for storing, organizing, annotating documents, uploading documents (including vital documents) by the consumer, and providing additional layers of security to particular documents.

Claims

1. A method for providing a consumer with the ability to access and collect personal health records associated with the consumer, comprising:

assigning a phone number individually associated with the consumer for fax and voice communications from a healthcare provider;

associating access information with the consumer for the consumer to use to access a secure web site;

providing the consumer with a document to provide to the healthcare provider exercising legal rights of the consumer for access to the health records, the document requesting the healthcare provider to send the health records to the phone number;

receiving a private fax communication comprising a personal health record associated with the consumer for which the consumer has requested and given permission to the healthcare provider to send;

converting the private fax communications into an image file format;

storing the health record encoded in the image file format;

providing the consumer with secure access to the web site using the access information and providing on the web site an interface to the health records of the consumer for the consumer to access the health record.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the legal rights being legal rights associated with HIPAA.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the document is a sticker adapted for attachment to the health record.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the consumer with an emergency access card comprising the access information and adapted for use by a third-party to access the health record associated with the consumer in event of a medical emergency associated with the consumer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the web site interface further provides for organizing and annotating the health records by the consumer into separate file folders with functionality for the consumer to name the file folders and add file folders.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the medical record is from the set consisting of a patient chart, a birth certificate, a vaccination record, a medical history, a lab report, a test result, a prescription, an x-ray result or image, a scan, and an EKG result or image.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a means of receiving voice communications message from the healthcare provider to the consumer and maintaining the voice communications message as private.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising alerting the consumer of the voice communications message from the healthcare provider and providing the consumer with access information to access the voice communications message.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising alerting the consumer of a fax transmission from the healthcare provider.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the reminder is a text message.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the reminder is an email.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the reminder is a voice message.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing on the web site means to calendar a prescription refill.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising sending a reminder regarding the prescription refill.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing on the web site means to calendar an appointment with a healthcare provider.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising sending a reminder regarding the appointment with the healthcare provider.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the reminder is a text message.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the reminder is an email.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the reminder is a voice message.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving payment from the customer for facilitating access to the health records associated with the customer.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the web site provides means to facilitate creation of wallet cards containing access information and stickers requesting healthcare providers to fax health records to the toll free phone number.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the health records include prescriptions for drugs and comprising analyzing interactions between the drugs and reporting the interactions.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the health records are dental records.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the health records associated with the consumer are health records of a child of the consumer.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the health records associated with the consumer are health records of a pet of the consumer.

27. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a means of receiving vital documents of the consumer and storing the vital documents.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the vital documents are from the set of a will, a living will, and a healthcare power of attorney.

29. The method of claim 1 further comprising means for protecting documents with at least one additional layer of password protection.

30. A kit for assisting a customer with exercising rights to health records associated with the customer, accessing the health records, maintaining the health records as private, and providing access to the health records in case of emergency, the kit comprising:

an access card comprising access information associated with the customer to be used to access a secure web site providing access to health records of the customer to be used to convey the access information to another in event of a medical emergency associated with the customer;

at least one sticker exercising legal rights of the customer to healthcare records and comprising instructions to a healthcare provider to electronically send the health records to a destination and wherein the health records sent to the destination are accessible on the secure web site.

31. The kit of claim 30 wherein the destination is a toll-free number for receiving a fax communication.

32. The kit of claim 31 wherein the toll-free number is individually dedicated to the customer.

33. The kit of claim 30 wherein the access card is printed with the toll-free number.

34. The kit of claim 30 wherein the destination is an email address associated with the customer.

35. A method for providing a consumer with the ability to access and collect health records associated with the consumer through use of a consumer account, the method comprising:

assigning a destination address individually associated with the consumer account for receiving communications from at least one healthcare providers;

associating access information with the consumer account for the consumer to use to access a secure web site;

receiving a communication from one of the at least one health care providers, the communication directed to the destination address, the communication comprising a health record associated with the consumer for which the consumer has requested and given permission to the healthcare provider to send;

storing a representation of the health record;

providing the consumer with secure access to the web site using the access information and providing on the web site an interface to the health records of the consumer for the consumer to use.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the destination address is a phone number.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the phone number is a toll-free phone number.

38. The method of claim 35 wherein the destination address is an email address.

39. The method of claim 35 wherein the access information includes a first set of access information for providing a first level of security and at least one second set of access information for providing an additional level of security.

40. The method of claim 35 further comprising receiving a health care record from the consumer uploaded to the web site.

41. The method of claim 35 wherein the health care record is a health care record of a family member.

42. The method of claim 35 wherein the health care record is a health care record of a pet.

43. The method of claim 35 wherein the health care record is a dental record.

44. The method of claim 35 further comprising receiving a vital document from the consumer and storing a representation of the vital document.

45. The method of claim 35 further comprising providing the consumer with a document to provide to the healthcare provider exercising legal rights of the consumer for access to the health records, the document requesting the healthcare provider to send the health records to the destination address.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the document includes an adhesive.

47. The method of claim 35 wherein the destination address is a phone number adapted for accepting both fax communications and voice communications without entry of a personal identification number (PIN) associated with the consumer.