Patients must have complete transparency into the cost and outcomes of their care. To that end, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making health data more computable and giving patients more control of their medical record. Putting patients in charge of their health records is at the center of HHS’ work toward a value-based health care system.
The seamless exchange of electronic health information and patient use of smartphone applications (apps) hold huge potential for delivering affordability and quality through transparency and competition. In 2016, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act to drive the electronic access, exchange, and use of health information. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Cures Act Final Rule implements the interoperability provisions of the Cures Act to promote patient control over their own health information.
For the American public, the Cures Act Final Rule fosters innovation in health care to deliver better information, more conveniently, to patients and their providers. It also promotes transparency through modern technology, providing tremendous opportunities for the American public to gain visibility into the services, quality, and costs of health care. As ONC implements the Cures Act Final Rule’s requirements, patients will begin to get on-demand access to certain information within their medical records, specifically the United States Core Data for Interoperability, which includes clinical notes, test results, and medications. Over the next two years, patients will be increasingly able to choose apps to assemble and read their records, allowing them to shop for care by comparing costs, understanding possible treatments, and expected health outcomes.
The Cures Act Final Rule includes provisions that require support for modern computing standards and APIs (application programming interfaces). These technical provisions will inject competition into health care by promoting an entrepreneurial economy and new business models using smartphone apps to provide novel services and new choices in care. The Cures Act Final Rule will also make sure health information follows a patient by preventing industrywide information blocking practices and other anti-competitive behavior by those entrusted to hold patients’ electronic health information.
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