“CMS interoperability regulations that require patient access to health information began on July 1. However, provider compliance will take some time, according to Don Searing, PhD, vice president of Solutions Architecture at HGS Colibrium.”
“The CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule, which comes as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, requires that all healthcare providers grant patients access to their personal health information.”
“Most provider organizations are implementing application programming interfaces (APIs) to comply with the interoperability and patient access final rule…”
“’It’s going to start off ugly and manual,’ Searing told EHRIntelligence in an interview. ‘There’s millions of end points and there may be millions of consuming points. If I go into my HealthKit in my Apple Watch and say I want to load my information from a doctor, Apple is going to need to know where that end point is that I can access.'”
“With time and usage, these end point connections will grow, Searing predicted.”
“It will also take time for healthcare providers to comply with these new regulations as they require major health IT investments.”
“’Everyone’s going to have to upgrade,’ Searing said. ‘Getting health systems and providers to move to the next level or the next version is going to be a challenge. There’s no way to flip a switch and make people compliant. There is going to be a little bit of a rollout…'”
“What’s more, once patients have access to personal health information, they will need tools to navigate their health record in a meaningful way that does not bury them in information, Searing explained…” Read the full article here.
Source: CMS Interoperability Rule Compliance, API Use Will Require Rollout – By Hannah Nelson, July 19, 2021. EHR Intelligence.
