About 3 in 100 Medicare Advantage Members Are Familiar with The Blue Button: HealthMine

PR Newswire

DALLAS, June 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A HealthMine survey of 800 Medicare Advantage members reveals that respondents have virtually no awareness of the Blue Button program. Blue Button enables "individuals to have access to and use their health information to be empowered partners in their health and health care." Just 3 percent of respondents noted that they have "heard of the Blue Button." Once respondents were prompted about the Blue Button program, 83 percent of respondents said they would at least consider using it in the future broken down this way: 13 percent of respondents said they would "immediately use it, nine percent said they would do so "in the next year," and 61 percent said they would "consider" using it at some point. Just 17 percent said they would not use it.

In speech remarks by CMS Administrator Seema Verma on February 12, 2019, she noted: "There are now over 1,500 developers with a Blue Button Sandbox Account—and many of you are here today. We have 18 Blue Button apps that are using our API in production. Congratulations to all of the Blue Button developers. A list of these apps are now posted on Medicare.gov.

Thousands of Medicare beneficiaries are already using Blue Button 2.0, with the response being overwhelmingly enthusiastic. For example, one person wrote us and said, 'I've used it to connect my claims data to an app that provides me with a health risk score. The score was average, and of course I wanted excellent. This prompted me to meet with my doctor about how to better manage my conditions.'"

Because of impact like this, CMS is working on new ways to update our nearly 40 million Medicare beneficiaries on the availability of Blue Button 2.0 applications."

According to HealthMine CEO, Bryce Williams, "Blue Button is clearly at a chicken-egg point in development. Developers are just starting to create the apps to make Blue Button easy to use. On the other hand, Medicare members simply have low awareness of the program. Our research shows that Medicare Advantage members see value in the Blue Button initiative with 83 percent wanting to use it, and 22 percent looking to use it in the next year. With more apps and more awareness, we expect that Blue Button will eventually grow substantially. But what will grow faster, the apps from developers or the members? Time will tell…but don't expect either group to be caught standing still."

Detailed results are below:

1. Have you heard of Blue Button?
No	97%
Yes	3%

2. Now that you have learned what Blue Button is, would you be inclined to use it?
Yes, I will immediately use it	13%
Yes, I will use it in the next year	9%
I will consider using it	61%
I would not use it	17%

About the Survey
The 2019 HealthMine Medicare Survey queried 800 insured age 65+ consumers with a chronic condition who are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan in May 2019. Data were collected via an opt-in panel. The margin of error was three percent (3%). Dynata, a world leader in providing first-party data contributed by consumers and business professionals, fielded the survey.

About HealthMine
HealthMine is the only Health Action as a Service company (HAaaS) originally built inside a Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) health plan. HealthMine's services help health plans target, engage and empower individuals to take actions that improve clinical outcomes while decreasing total cost of care and increasing plan revenue. HealthMine is online at www.healthmine.com.

Once Medicare Advantage beneficiaries understand what the Blue Button is, 83 percent of respondents would at least consider using it