CMS proposal would ease access to health care data

Anyone who’s ever tried to get medical records moved from one doctor or health plan to another—or even access specific details of their own record—know what a frustrating, if not downright impossible, task it can be. New proposed rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would open the gates, so to speak, on the availability of patient information—not just to patients but also to doctors, other providers and insurers.

Patients are often still reduced to trotting between doctors’ offices with files, films and discs containing everything from diagnoses and treatment records to X-rays and scans, and some entities on the other side of the table restrict information or charge to provide it.

Related: Trump administration pushes for medical-record transparency

But as Modern Healthcare reports, CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology have put forth proposed rules that would oblige both providers and insurers to get with the program by implementing open data-sharing technology to allow data to flow from one plan to another, possibly via patient apps.

Oh, and those providers blocking patient information? Their names will be made public to encourage them to stop the practice.

The Wall Street Journal adds  that the new rules would also provide patients who might be able to see only some of their information via a hospital’s patient portal access to additional data that perhaps they can’t get at present: doctors’ notes, imaging scans and data on genetic testing, for instance. And they won’t have to pay for it, either.

In fact, what’s envisioned is a system similar to what consumers currently use for banking and other purposes: an app on their phone that they can simply call up to see the information they need.

In addition, insurers providing Medicare Advantage, managed Medicaid and Affordable Care Act exchange coverage backed by the government will need to offer new digital access to claims data for consumers, including cost information for services, and that could open the door to integration of that kind of data into tools like that offered by Apple.

Data will have to be shared, although there will be a few exceptions, and while companies can recover costs incurred for doing so they won’t be able to charge for the data—which can then be used to develop AI health care tools or conduct studies.

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