“While many of the central projects under the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments’ concurrent electronic health records rollouts are being delayed to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, the joint program office reached a major data-sharing milestone this weekend.”
“On Saturday, the joint Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization, or FEHRM, program office stood up the DOD and VA Health Information Exchange, which will allow medical providers at both agencies to share patient data with private-sector health care organization, such as specialists and urgent care clinics…”
“The exchange—formally announced Monday—includes 215 partners, with most providers able to send and receive patient data from the agencies. However, a few providers only share patient data in one direction, either sharing data with VA and DOD or accepting information from the agencies, but not both.”
“The number of partner providers is expected to increase significantly before the end of the year, as the FEHRM office plans to connect to a third-party platform called CommonWell, ‘a network of more than 15,000 community providers,’ according to the release…”
“Prior to launch of the new exchange, veterans could share information with private-sector providers but had to file a specific form to opt-in. Under the new exchange, veterans and active-duty service members are automatically enrolled to share data with approved ‘participating partners…’” Read the full article here.
Source: VA and DOD Now Default to Sharing Patient Data with Private-Sector Providers – By Aaron Boyd, April 20, 2020. Nextgov.
