iBlueButton® vs VA Family Medical - CHAMPVA Usage & Stats
iBlueButton has been designed by physicians to allow you to have in your hands at all times your detailed medical history, enriched with personalized medical care guidance and important health safety warnings including risk factors for severe Coronavirus illness with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). iBlueButton helps better manage your healthcare, prevent medical errors, and avoid costly unnecessary care all from the privacy and security of your iPhone. Data is stored directly on your iPhone, it is never shared or sold for any purpose.
iBlueButton won multiple awards over the years including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Industry Innovation competition for its Blue Button program. iBlueButton is the first Medicare approved native mobile Blue Button application, and you can find the app listed on the Medicare.gov website (go to Manage Your Health). As a partner of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) since 2011, iBlueButton is also approved by the VA to allow Veterans to download their VA health record.
iBlueButton can also retrieve health records from the Apple Health App, allowing you to assemble all of your records into an enriched Summary Record.
For Medicare beneficiaries & their caregivers, iBlueButton lets them login into their MyMedicare.gov account to retrieve their medical claim history which is then automatically translated into an organized medical history.
Benefits of iBlueButton:
- BE PREPARED WITH YOUR CRITICAL INFORMATION ALWAYS WITH YOU
At the physician’s office or in the emergency room, be prepared with all the information you need securely organized and stored by iBlueButton on your smartphone or tablet. iBlueButton pulls and organizes your health records into easy to view sections. Your medical history is available for you at all times to review, research, understand medical terminology, annotate, and select the specific information you want to share.
- PERSONALIZED SAFETY WARNINGS
iBlueButton automatically generates important safety warnings about your medications to help you prevent adverse drug effects, alerting you about highly addictive opioids and of potentially dangerous drug-drug interactions, or medications which should be avoided if you are over the age of 65. iBlueButton also provides professionally recommended medical care guidelines for common chronic conditions and now generates warnings and prevention alerts for individuals at risk for severe Coronavirus illness with access to the CDC prevention ’s guidance.
- LIFE AND COST SAVING
On average, a Medicare beneficiary sees seven different physicians a year, with most physicians not having the full medical history of their patients, which can cause medical errors, unnecessary tests, and avoidable healthcare expenses. Veterans and military families experience these same healthcare issues, as their care takes place in both VA and private-sector facilities. iBlueButton helps you prevent dangerous medical errors by having with you, anytime and anywhere, your critical medical history.
- SECURE AND PRIVATE, UNDER YOUR CONTROL
Unlike most personal health applications, your information is only stored securely on your iPhone, under your control, not in the cloud. Your data remains yours, with no risk of tampering or hacking and is never shared or sold.
- Apple App Store
- Free
- Medical
Store Rank
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The Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), is for individuals who are either the spouse or children of a disabled Veteran, or the surviving spouse or child of a Veteran who has died AND do not qualify for TRICARE.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) CHAMPVA mobile application (app) is designed for medical service providers (VA and private practice) and beneficiaries as they plan care and medical procedures. Beneficiaries and providers use the app individually, or together during a patient encounter, to determine whether the VA will pay for care delivery.
The CHAMPVA app uses several different medical code sets to determine if services and/or equipment are covered. Over 270,000 individual medical codes are listed in the included databases. Medical code sets include:
Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, which describe medical, surgical, and diagnostic services. CPT coding identifies services rendered.
ICD-10 codes, which relate to the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). It contains codes for diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases. The CHAMPVA app uses ICD-10-CM data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes, which provide a standardized coding system for describing the specific items and services provided in the delivery of health care. Such coding is necessary for CHAMPVA, Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance programs to ensure that insurance claims are processed in an orderly and consistent manner.
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) codes refer to equipment that can withstand repeated use, is primarily used to serve a medical purpose, is generally not useful in the absence of an illness or injury and is appropriate for use in the home. DME codes are included with HCPCS Codes.
The national drug codes (NDC) are unique 10-digit, three segment numerical codes that identify drugs intended for human use. The first segment is a 4 to 5 digit, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assigned labeler code to identify the firm that manufactures or distributes a drug. The second segment is the product code, which identifies the drug, including the specific strength, dosage form, and formulation. The third segment, the package code, identifies package sizes and types.
For billing purposes an 11-digit 5-4-2 format code is used based on the NDC code. The CHAMPVA app uses the information published by the FDA and converts the NDC code to the billing code.
Medical codes are searchable via the alphanumeric code, name or description.
Once a desired medical code is identified, a patient or provider may select it to determine if it is Covered by CHAMPVA. Results DO NOT constitute an authorization by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for any purchase.
The CHAMPVA program guide is included that provides a more detailed explanation of CHAMPVA benefits. The CHAMPVA Guide contains links to applicable websites as well as phone numbers that can be called from your phone by tapping on the number. This guide is searchable via the table of contents as well as by the index. For convenience a Portable Document Format (pdf) version is also included.
The CHAMPVA app also includes a facility locator that allows searching by type of facility to find providers near you out of the over 2400 VA facilities nationwide. Additionally, providers and pharmacies that participate in the VA Community Care Program may be searched to ensure that you get the best care possible.
- Apple App Store
- Free
- Medical
Store Rank
- -
iBlueButton® VS. 
VA Family Medical - CHAMPVADecember 17, 2024