Groups Call for Patient EHR Access

HDM Breaking News, January 16, 2009

A dozen organizations including patient advocates, vendors and health information exchanges have sent members of Congress a letter urging patient access to their electronic health records.

Health I.T. investments via the economic stimulus legislation should be tied to development of systems that give anytime secure availability of EHRs for patients and their providers, the organizations recommend.

Trusted third parties that could give patients access to their records include health record banks and trusts, personal health records vendors, insurers, and regional health information organizations, according to the letter. Patients would voluntarily choose to utilize one of these organizations.

"All EHR systems supported with public funds must fulfill a patient's request for an electronic copy of all or part of their medical records, including audit trails and subsequent updates," the letter states. "The copy would be transmitted to the patient or a patient-designated third party. Copies and updates of EHR data must be made available within 24 hours, absent exceptional circumstances, at no charge to patients or third parties, and should be available for sharing only with the informed consent of the patient."

The letter also explains processes to make EHR availability possible and priorities for federal funding of data exchange initiatives. It also includes background information on a standard for human readable copies of electronic health records data.

Signers of the letter include the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Cardiology, Cerner Corp., Greater Ocala Health Information Trust, Health Record Banking Alliance, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Louisville Health Information Exchange, National Alliance for Hispanic Health, Patient Command Inc., Progressive Policy Institute, Secure Services Corp., and Self-Insurance Institute of America.

For full text of the letter, send an e-mail to joseph.goedert@sourcemedia.com.

--Joseph Goedert

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