4/8/2013
MMRGlobal Launches Telemedicine Patient Billing System and Adds Genomics File to PHR
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/08/13 -- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF) ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records ("PHRs"), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, today announced a delivery system designed to bill for telemedicine services to patients through the Company's MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record by charging additional fees on a per patient per month basis to employers, affinity group and membership organization clients as well as physicians, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, laboratory systems, pharmacies, mass merchandisers and other healthcare professionals, vendors and providers. According to Robert H. Lorsch, MMRGlobal, CEO, "Until now, it has been difficult to cost effectively treat patients through a telemedicine portal due to the fixed cost of maintaining 7x24 labor and technology and infrastructure. MMR meets the challenge by offering everything a provider will need to provision telemedicine services including telemedicine carts and portable telemedicine cases as part of the recurring monthly fees."
Also being launched with the telemedicine service will be a password-protected file entitled MyGenomics. MMR Advisory Board member Dr. Ivor Royston collaborated with the Company to create the MyGenomics file which can help physicians who are seeing a patient for the first time through a telemedicine portal or in person. Using genomics, physicians can evaluate a patient's risk to specific diseases or disorders, and other dominant and recessive variants, which can indicate if a patient could be susceptible to or carry specific diseases or disorders including certain drug sensitivities. An increasing number of patients are getting genomic testing to predict future disease trends in their body. MMR will be the first Company to integrate genomics to display disease trends side by side with Personal Health Records. Both the telemedicine billing and the Genomic folder capability will be launched to as many as 2,000 patients this quarter in connection with the April 15, 2013 release of the Company's two-way seamless communication between the MyMedicalRecords PHR and the 4medica Certified for Meaningful Use Integrated Electronic Health Record (4medica iEHR®) which MMR announced last month.
Continued Lorsch, "Just as we launched the PHR far in advance of the market, we are now striving to provision tools that will display the most comprehensive picture of a patient based on the latest in technology through their PHR to a physician online. Through the art and science of predictive medicine, MMR's PHR can help tell patients what's ahead and what's going on now with their health. By adding a genomics file to MMR's MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record, doctors will have access to a patient's genomic test data in a password-protected MyGenomics folder, helping streamline patient diagnoses and reduce costs of care using predictive medicine."
The Company will sell and/or license MyGenomics and telemedicine services as part of its suite of patented MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record products and services and other IP. While genomic testing today costs as little as $200 for specific screenings, and $5,000 for complete sequencing, predictions are that by 2015 complete sequencing test costs will be reduced to as little as $500 available as a standard of preventive care.
As the healthcare system moves closer to Stage 2 Meaningful Use implementation, the growth of Personal Health Records is projected to parallel the adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems by primary care physicians, which is significant. Currently, 42% of the U.S. population is keeping health records for themselves and their family while only 7% of Americans use online PHRs. MMR is positioned to benefit from the projected growth in PHR revenues as the Company currently has seven U.S. health IT patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 8,301,466; 8,352,287; 8,352,288; 8,121,855; 8,117,646; 8,117,045; and 8,321,240, as well as additional applications and continuation applications with nearly 400 claims. The patents involve inventions pertaining to Personal Health Records, Patient Portals and other Electronic Health Record systems. With MMR's patented technologies, the Company is positioned to benefit from the fact that many believe PHRs have the potential to change provider relationships, enhance patient-physician shared decision making, and enable the healthcare system to evolve toward a more personalized medical model. Medical information on the Web has made patients more aware of symptoms, diagnostic tests, diseases, and treatment options.
MMR also has Personal Health Record patents and pending applications in other countries of commercial interest including Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Israel, and European nations. Since the founding of MyMedicalRecords in 2005, the Company's patented products and services have grown in value and were the subject of a special report published on January 22, 2013, which concluded that the value of the MMRGlobal's U.S. HIT patent portfolio could reach between $600 million to $1.1 billion in revenue
