Aetna introduces a PHR for its members, only 5 1/2 years after sending me the funniest email of all time, which said that they were spending all their time fixing their IT system and even if the solution (a PHR) that we had for them would fix all their problems, they still couldn’t buy it for 2 more years. Well I guess they meant 5 more!  Sadly we were out of business well before the 2 years expired!

Their PHR is an off shoot of Active Care Management’s Care Engine. Aetna bought ACT last year. At that point Empire Blues was the biggest user of Care Engine. They didn’t go with it for their PHR though—they’re using WebMD’s version. Which makes me wonder how good Active Care’s version is. Perhaps I’ll be able to check into it soon and tell you.

Meanwhile all care will soon be delivered at home by clever in-home dialysis and monitored by Health Buddies. It must be true because it says so in Business2.0. Yes I know that’s an unfair slam on Health Hero Network (who I know and love), but their new direct to consumer model is, shall we say, a brave business innovation, given that it demands $50 a month from the chronically ill.

Good luck to them and I’m sure they’ll keep me appraised on the models success while the rest of us are waiting for Medicare funding for remote monitoring.