Study: “Information Blocking” By Vendors And Providers Persists

A newly-released study suggests that both EHR vendors and providers may still be interfering with the free exchange of patient healthcare data. The researchers concluded that despite the hearty disapproval of both Congress and healthcare providers, the two still consider “information blocking” to be in their financial interest. To conduct the study, which appears in this month’s issue of The Milbank Quarterly, researchers conducted a national survey between October 2015 and January 2015. Researchers reached out to leaders driving HIE efforts among provider organizations. The study focused on how often information blocking took place, what forms it took and how effective various policy strategies might be at stopping the practice. It certainly seems that the practice continues to be a major issue of concern to HIE leaders. Eighty-three percent of respondents said they were very familiar with information blocking, while just 12 percent reported having just some familiarity with the practice and 5 percent said they had minimal familiarity. On average, the respondents offered a good cross-industry view, having worked with 18 EHR vendors and with 31 hospitals or health systems on average. Forms of Blocking: If the research is accurate, information blocking is a widespread and persistent problem. When questioned about specific forms of information by EHR vendors, 29 percent of respondents said that vendors often or routinely roll out products with limited interoperability ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare Healthcare Interoperability HealthCare IT HIE Hospital EHR Data Interoperability EHR Interoperability EMR Interoperability Information Blocking Patient Data Ex Source Type: blogs