INDIANAPOLIS — Aetna Inc. is the first health insurer to team with Microsoft Corp. to give its customers an Internet-based vault for storing medical records.

Starting this month, Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna will allow some customers to transfer electronic personal health records to Microsoft’s HealthVault, a platform that lets care providers look at the information, if they have patient permission.

The vault will give the insurer’s customers “continuous access” to their claims information and anything the patient wants to add, like past medical records, Aetna President Mark Bertolini said.

“We can avoid duplicate testing; we can avoid mistakes that occur as a result of (physicians) not understanding the member’s complete condition,” he said. “Because we don’t have a national health information technology network, this will stand as a first-generation of that kind of capability.”