Health Information Technology
Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program Health Information Technology and Price/Cost Transparency
Over the past few years, OPM has encouraged FEHB health benefits plans to increase their use of health information technology (HIT). HIT can help your health plan and healthcare providers deliver safer more efficient care. Using HIT, your health plan can offer you tools to help you organize your health information, access information targeted to your health needs, and determine the quality and price/cost of the doctors, hospitals and other providers that you and your family use for day-to-day healthcare needs.
HIT based on broadly accepted standards, allows patients, healthcare providers and health plans to share information securely, driving down costs by avoiding duplicate procedures and manual transactions. More importantly, HIT reduces medical errors; for instance, from misread handwritten prescriptions, and emergency care medical decisions made without complete and accurate health information. HIT can also help you find appropriate health information to aid you and your doctor in making appropriate clinical decisions regarding your care. Since privacy and security considerations are vitally important, safeguards have been established to keep your records safe from inappropriate disclosure.