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Your Data in Health Picture
We currently provide the ability to link your Medicare information to your Health Picture account. This is done through a secure connection offered by Medicare and will require you to have or set up an account on MyMedicare.gov. You can access our informational page on how to set up your Medicare account here.
We have put together an informational page that walks you through the process of creating and connecting your MyMedicare.gov account. You can access that page here.
The information you will see depends on your Medicare coverage. If you have Original Medicare (Part A, Part B, and/or Part D), you will be able to see information on any doctor visits, medications, procedures, tests, or therapies that were paid for through Medicare. If Medicare doesn’t pay for all of your healthcare, such as having a Medicare Advantage policy (Part C), you may be able to see some information that would be available, but you will not be able to see everything due to how that information is reported.
Typically, the length of time from the day the activity took place to being able to see it in Health Picture could be from a week to 90 days or, in rare cases, even longer.
What information you see depends on when you last saw a doctor or filled a prescription and the amount of time it takes for your doctor’s office to process the information and send to Medicare. Once Medicare receives the information, there is additional processing time. This is called claims lag and varies across the types of service (e.g. inpatient vs. physician services). Due to the claims lag, the data presented may not be up-to-date dependent on when you are reviewing it. Historically, 90% of Original Medicare claims across all claim types are submitted within 3 months, while 90% of all Medicare Advantage claims are submitted within 12 months. We expect original Medicare claims to be more timely because providers submit those directly to Medicare for payment. There is a long lag with Medicare Advantage because the organizations that manage those programs must collect the data before submitting them to CMS and have more processes to finalize the data.
We take transparency very seriously when it comes to data and security. All of the information we have about you is encrypted and stored in a secure cloud server and only assessable over secured connections by you or your Health Picture connections. We highly recommend you don’t share your username and password to Health Picture with anyone and verify you know the individuals you agree to link accounts with prior to accepting invitations to connect. We have added steps to encourage your communication with potential connections outside of the application to help protect you and your data.
Some of the insights we provide require more information to properly calculate the potential risks and comparison to others of the same age and sex. If you choose not to provide this information you can still see your health history but we will not be able to provide information on the Insights page.
Signing up for Health Picture
We designed Health Picture to bring focus to important health information so that Medicare subscribers and their health advocates can work together to track, manage, and improve health.
As a Medicare subscriber, you can connect your own Medicare account and use it to view your personal health record and insights or you can choose to share your health information with trusted advocates to help manage your care.
As an advocate, you can use Health Picture to understand the needs of your loved ones health and provide any needed support. Of course if you are also enrolled in Medicare, you can connect your account to see your health information as well.
If at any time you feel you would like to remove your data from Health Picture you may go to the Manage Profile page and select “Delete Account”. This will permanently remove your data and account information from Health Picture, as well as remove any linking you might have set up with others to share this information. It is important to note that doing this will NOT remove the authorization you created on MyMedicare.gov, which will need to be managed by going to your account there and removing the approval to Health Picture.
Inviting others to Health Picture
Our goal is to help individuals stay healthy by providing you with ways to make the best health choices for you but also allow you a convenient way to have others you trust help you as well. This is especially important if you need help understanding medical decisions and are looking for support from others in your life.
There are a couple of options provided to invite people to link their Health Picture accounts. If you are a Medicare subscriber, you can invite a trusted health advocate to view your information through the connections link. This link is found within the menu under the upper right icon. Similarly, if you are an advocate, you can invite Medicare subscribers using the same method.
When you send an invitation to someone, you are provided a unique PIN code that will be needed by your invitee to accept the invitation and create their Health Picture account. Please text or give the invitee a call to share this PIN number. We want to be sure your information is safe and secure by providing a way that allows people who know each other to collaborate, while also taking additional steps to protect your information from unknown individuals gaining access to your data.
If you change your mind after accepting an invitation from someone you can easily remove this link from the Connections page. Find the person in the list that you no longer wish to be connected to and click the delete icon (trash can) to the right of that row. Once you have confirmed the deletion that user will no longer be able to view your health information.
Information you are seeing in Health Picture
You will see how you compare to others in your age group and sex for certain conditions (like risk of pneumonia) or outcomes (like risk of unplanned hospitalization), based on your health history and calculated using Medicare-specific risk prediction models. Our hope is that you are able to use this information as a starting point for a conversation with your doctor. You may already be managing your health effectively, in which case you are already doing what you can taking steps for your health. And finally, please remember these Insights are not a diagnosis, nor treatment advice.
Conditions
Conditions (also known as diagnoses) noted by a licensed healthcare professional on a Medicare claim are listed with most recent first. To see any related diagnoses, click the plus sign. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the bill. Please note that the First reported date is when it was first reported to Medicare. The condition may have existed before you joined Medicare, but that information is not available to Health Picture at this time.
Don’t see a condition? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part A or Part B enrollment is newly in effect.
Medications
Filled prescription medications are listed with most recent first. To see all fills for the prescription, click the plus sign. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the bill.
Don’t see a medication fill? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part D enrollment is not applicable or newly in effect.
Procedures
Procedures (including outpatient surgery and invasive diagnostic tests) are listed with most recent first. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the provider’s bill.
Don’t see a procedure? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part A or Part B enrollment is newly in effect.
Providers
Providers (such as doctors, nurse practitioners, residents, physical therapists) are licensed healthcare professionals listed with most recently seen first. To see address, you can hover over the provider name. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the provider’s bill.
Don’t see a provider? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part A or Part B enrollment is new. Please check again soon.
Tests
Tests (Imaging or Lab) are listed with most recent first. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the provider’s bill.
Don’t see a test? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part A or Part B enrollment is new. Please check again soon.
Therapies
Therapies (see drop-down for full list) are listed with most recent first. To see all instances of a course of therapy, you can click the plus sign. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the provider’s bill.
Don’t see a therapy session? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part A or Part B enrollment is new. Please check again soon.
Visits
Visits include outpatient and inpatient stays (see drop-down for full list) with a licensed healthcare professional and are listed with most recent first. Where available, we show primary reason for the visit and primary procedure performed. Healthcare activity reported here will have a delay of about a month but may be longer or shorter depending on when Medicare receives the provider’s bill.
Don’t see a visit? It could be due to Medicare bill processing time lag or if Medicare Part A or Part B enrollment is new. Please check again soon.