Senate Hearing Holds Both Solutions Providers And Healthcare Responsible For Information Blocking
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing on July 23 to address information blocking and the role both solutions providers and healthcare providers play in the issue. The meeting was the fourth in a series designed to address the emerging problem around EHR (electronic health records) adoption.
Committee chairman, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) shared his thoughts on information blocking and how it could impact him as a hypothetical patient in an information-blocking scenario at Vanderbilt University Hospital: “This could happen a few different ways: My usual hospital refuses to share my information. The electronic systems at both hospitals don’t talk to each other. My usual hospital says it will charge Vanderbilt a huge fee to send my electronic records. My usual hospital says it can’t share them for privacy reasons. Or, my usual hospital won’t send them because they cite concerns about data security.” (Healthcare Informatics)
Senator Alexander also highlighted the potential that physicians and hospitals have to block information in an effort to keep patients from transferring to or interacting with competing physicians and facilities.
According to HealthData Management, Chief Academic Research Officer for the Parkview Mirro Center For Research And Innovation in Fort Wayne, IN, testified on behalf of the American College Of Cardiology, revealing that many practices walked unknowingly into extra costs in addressing information blocking.
What’s worse, is his admission that many vendors’ contracts bound healthcare providers with gag clauses that prevent them from publicly addressing any technical issues they encouter or any pricing they see as unfair.
“Many EHR vendors provide the functionality needed, but require the user to purchase their health IT products to make the elements of the EHR interoperable. Like other products such as consumer electronics, you are able to connect, but you must buy a specific company’s products to do so with ease. The ramifications of technology in healthcare that are unable to communicate are serious, resulting in decreased care quality and stunting improvements in population health.”