LOS ANGELES – L.A. Care Health Plan announces that Blue Button is now available to its Medi-Cal Managed Care beneficiaries. Blue Button is a web-based feature that allows patients to easily view and download their health information. L.A. Care’s Blue Button enables members to access their own prescription information online. L.A. Care is the first in California and among the first in the nation to develop Blue Button for Medicaid beneficiaries.
“We are excited to bring such innovative technology as Blue Button to vulnerable L.A. County residents who can now more easily share their information with their doctors and other caregivers,” said Howard A. Kahn, L.A. Care Chief Executive Officer. “It empowers patients to take an active role in their own health care, increases effective communication and helps avoid prescription errors.”
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs initiated Blue Button in 2010. In 2012, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology began encouraging its broader use. In November 2013, L.A. Care, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan, was awarded $400,000 from the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement’s California Health eQuality program to develop Blue Button functionality.
“This program will also help us to achieve the Triple Aim – improving the patient experience of care, improving health outcomes and reducing the cost of health care delivery,” said Dr. Carter, L.A. Care Chief Medical Officer. “It is our hope that the success of Blue Button will serve as a model for all managed care health plans in the state and country to adopt the same functionality to improve patients’ access to their data.”
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