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Article: Payers hold the key to the NHIN: the role of health plans, payers and insurers in the 10-year drive toward nationwide interoperability is enormous, and not yet fully defined.(national health information network)
- Article from:
- Health Management Technology
- Article date:
- April 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On the one hand, the national health information network (NHIN) could be the answer to physicians' prayers. On the other hand, it could be another major step down the circuitous path to even greater government control of personal information. In the months and years to come, the debate over the federal government's proposal to create the NHIN will undoubtedly heat up.
At first glance, the concept looks simple: build a nationwide network--similar to the Internet--over which patient data on every American can be shared by each healthcare provider who treats that patient, the health plans that cover that patient and the patient himself. But like many broad-based ...