So I'm perusing my March 2012 issue of BabyTalk magazine. Yes, I still take all the parenting and baby mags I can get my hands on because (1) I like to be on top of my mothering game so I pretty much go AGAINST all the advice in these mags and (2) I aspire to write articles and shorts for them someday ... honest stuff, funny stuff, useful stuff and not fluff. Although I will write fluff for enough money. Just being honest.
Anyway, there's this teeny thing about a company called Motherknows.com and for $8 per month plus $49 setup fee they "compile your child's medical history, allowing parents to tap into it 24/7."
Tap into this, you sleep-deprived mommies with too much money and too little time: Obama laid down the law and our records have to be all electronic by 2014 anyway (HITECH Act of 2009). Will your doc's records upload to Motherknows' records every time you go to the doctor or do you have to do it your dang self? What a pain if you have more than 1 kid and a job and stuff like that.
It seems to me that Motherknows.com is trying to cash in on people who don't know that their records are going to be in that form soon enough anyway. Me, I just toss vaccine and appointment info in an Excel file with a different sheet for each kid. When that gets overwhelming, I just toss stuff in a file folder called "medical" and dig through it when I need to.
So why would you pay for your kids' records to be electronic when soon enough everybody's records will be that way anyhow? For free! Well, kinda for free. I mean, your tax dollars will pay for it, but whatever. That's like free money for the government anyway. It's like my Paypal money. Ha!
Now I will sit back and wait for the company to Google themselves and find me and then comment about how great they are!
While we wait, shall we discuss banking umbilical cord blood? Yes? No? I don't do it. Did you? Would you? And let's also find out what you think about medical records going electronic! My doc's been doing it for a while now ... I miss seeing him lug around my 27-pound chart sometimes. Ah, memories.
So I looked up this company and I have to tell you I love this quote on their homepage.
ReplyDelete"MotherKnows does not provide any guarantee of the accuracy of the data or medical records shown on your account."
Wow! Says it all doesn't it? So they want you to pay for something that you will be able to access for free and then they can't guarantee the accuracy. Why not? If you are accessing my medical records why wouldn't they be accurate?
Very interesting read Ms Kerrie.
I have some family members who work for Cerner, who are working on making electronic medical records available. I feel like I can't criticize, because without that, they'd be out of a job. And honestly, I kind of think it's a good idea... if you're out of town and go to a hospital, they know your medical history, allergies, etc.
ReplyDeleteStill, it does seem like an invasion of privacy.
Hi Kerrie,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Erica Kei, and I manage the social media for MotherKnows.com. I came across your post today, and have the following feedback for you and your readers:
1. We very much support Obamas efforts.
2. Unfortunately 20% or less of pediatricians are using EMR systerms (EMRs are adopted much faster by large groups but most pediatric practices are less then 5 pediatricians).
3. Less then 10% of them provide patient portals to access this info.
4. NONE of these patient portals allow you to own your information, you cant share it or take it with you so if you switch doctors ( you moved , switched insurance) your account gets shut and you cannot combine it with the new account.
5. 20% to 30% of kids are either over immunized or under immunized due to loss of records.
Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.
Thank you!
Erica