Upfront: Employers Push for Digital Health Records

It will take a Herculean effort to lift the United States out of its health-care crisis, and few groups are big enough, powerful enough and well-funded enough to lead the way.

Last March, a bill was introduced in Congress that would make over 8 million employees covered by federal health insurance the guinea pigs in a plan to make health records portable, potentially saving the government billions of dollars as a result of efficiency and automation. The initiative, if carried out, could serve as a model for change in the private sector. But funding for the project remains foggy, and the bill -- H.R. 4859, also known as the Porter-Clay bill -- remains in a congressional committee at press time.

Now several large employers are moving ahead in the same direction. In November, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., British Petroleum and Intel Corp. announced a coalition to jump-start a plan to provide digital health records for their workforce, storing them in an enormous data warehouse that links medical services providers, including hospitals, doctors and pharmacies. Other big employers are expected to contribute financially to bring the plan to fruition. Once in place, the system would allow consumers and insurers to evaluate price and performance data and thereby substantially reduce medical costs -- and benefit costs -- by eliminating duplicate tests and incorrect information.