The Draft 20020-2025 Health IT Strategic Plan published by HHS includes data sharing language which has the legacy EHR vendors crying foul (and firing off intense lobbying against the proposed rules). Here is that offending section:
One phrase apparently causing the drama is:
The federal government through continued implementation of this Plan seeks to enable individuals to have seamless, secure, and free access to their electronic health information …
Here’s another:
Promote data liquidity by working with developers, healthcare providers, payers, and state and federal entities to eliminate unnecessarily restrictive data sharing practices …
Enter Tommy Thompson
The former Wisconsin Governor and erstwhile HHS Secretary weighed in with his 1/6/2020 Wisconsin State Journal op-ed entitled “HHS’ New Health IT Rule Would Hurt Epic and the Wisconsin Economy.” His basic thesis is that if Epic were forced to allow patients to have their data, Epic’s trade secrets would be revealed. Revealing those “trade secrets,” he argues, would be damaging to Epic, and thus damaging to the economy of the Wisconsin region that is home to Epic.
So Let’s Walk Through This
- Big EHR vendors like Epic are blocking patients from having their own healthcare data.
- HHS is proposing rules to discourage that behavior.
- Big EHR vendors like Epic are arguing that patient data is their trade secret.
- To provide patients possession of this information (i.e., their own data) might weaken the suffocating chokehold these big EHR vendors have on the hapless providers and hospitals using these mind-numbing legacy systems.
Question: How is unfettered patient access to their healthcare data NOT a fantastic outcome for advancing healthcare?
Dear Legacy EHR Vendors
What got you here won’t get you there–unless the “there” you seek is oblivion.
Hubris can be a debilitating condition, and it has made you forget that you exist only because patients need medical care and providers need efficient tools to provide that care. You aren’t the healthcare system; you are but one of many tools that should be helping improve the quality and transparency of healthcare delivery.
Instead, by preventing the unfettered sharing of patient data, you are decreasing the quality of healthcare encounters and outcomes. News Flash:
- Patient data belongs to patients
- Provider data belongs to providers.
- Neither belongs to you.
I do realize that your hubris prevents you from seeing how profoundly out of touch you are with these facts and the realities of the healthcare market in 2020, and I do have sympathy for you.
I sincerely hope you get the treatment you need in time.
Call to Action
Like you, I can’t seem to find the millions that would be required to match the lobbying efforts of the legacy EHR vendors, but we can all make our voices heard.
To our House and Senate
Now is the time to make sure your senators and representative understand that:
- Seamless, secure and free access to patient data is a fundamental human right.
- We are holding them accountable for ensuring that this right is protected.
- They, and their families, are patients too. What access to their own health information do they think they should have?
Make Your Voice Heard
We, The People, expect our elected officials to support the basic human right of secure patient data access and possession.