Nearly half of Kaiser Permanente's members use My Health Manager

By Aditi Pai
05:40 am
Share

Kaiser PermanenteAround 4.4 million members in health system Kaiser Permanente's 9.1 million member network are using Kaiser's online health management platform, called My Health Manager, according to a Kaiser's 2013 annual report.

Kaiser Permanente's health manager website had over 131 million visits last year. The report adds that through Kaiser's online and mobile health services 34.4 million lab test results were viewed online, 14.7 million secure emails were sent, 3.6 million online appointment requests were made, and 14.8 million online prescriptions were refilled.

Of the members who used My Health Manager's Healthy Lifestyle feature, which provides members with health programs, 56 percent said they lost weight and 58 percent said that they quit smoking. Healthy Lifestyle users with insomnia increased their nightly sleep by 32 minutes on average.

Kaiser also released app download data from two of the company's apps. The first app, called Kaiser Permanente, reached 455,512 downloads in 2013. Through the app members can email physicians, schedule or cancel appointments, get refills for a prescription, and access lab results. The app also helps users find nearby KP medical facilities. In June, Kaiser released new download numbers for its app, which has now reached over 1 million downloads -- or more than 10 percent of Kaiser's member network.

“We’re seeing that members are using the app most often to securely email their doctors and manage appointments,” Madhu Nutakki, vice president of digital presence technologies, Kaiser Permanente said at the time. “Giving members the ability to quickly and easily connect with their doctors and other care providers, no matter where they are, empowers them to become actively engaged in their health care.”

The Kaiser Permanente app first launched for Android devices in January 2012, and by May, the app had 100,000 downloads. That May, Kaiser Permanente also launched an iOS version of the app. At the time Kaiser Permanente Mobility Center of Excellence Executive Director Brian Gardner said the year before, through the online platform the healthcare facility had before the app, 29 million lab tests were viewed and 2.5 million appointments were scheduled. He added that the number was likely to go up now that the feature is better enabled for mobile devices.

One of Kaiser's other apps, called  Every Body Walk!, which encourages users to walk 30 minutes a day, saw 165,000 downloads last year. The app offers resources and articles on walking and a personal section on which users can pledge to walk.

Share