Insurer to track health records

Insurer to track health records: "Independence Blue Cross, the region's largest health insurer, is joining with 19 other Blue plans across the nation to form a massive database of health-care records that could enable employers, consumers and medical professionals to learn better what kind of care works best. These massive databases are part of a national trend to arm consumers with at least as much information in getting care as they have when buying a car. 'This has the potential to move us forward in our ability to give consumers the tools needed to make very difficult health-care decisions,' said John R. Lumpkin, director of the health-care group of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton. The Blues consortium could provide useful 'Consumer Reports' information on health care by analyzing real-life data from its 79 million members, he said."