SPM ’s comments on important proposed CMS interoperability rules

By E-PATIENT DAVE DEBRONKART This is the first of two posts from the Society of Participatory Medicine about an important policy issue regarding portability of our medical records. The second part will be published tomorrow and is written by Michael Millenson, who did the lion’s share of this work, as noted below. Our Society’s Advocacy and Policy chair Vera Rulon @VRulon has submitted our comments on the proposed rules that have been discussed at great length on social media. These regulations are a big deal for participatory medicine – they’re the successor to the Meaningful Use rules that have governed patient access to their chart, among other things. The regulations do this by altering how a hospital gets paid based on how well their data moves out of their computers. We want this; we believe it is essential in enabling patients and families to achieve the best possible care. (More on this in Millenson’s companion post.) Not surprisingly, some hospitals don’t like new rules that affect how they get paid, and have lobbied heavily to NOT be required to give us our data. Some observers say there are ulterior motives – for instance see these 30 seconds of Yale cardiologist Harlan Krumholz at Connected Health 2016, on how a health system CEO told him flat out: “You don’t understand – why would we want to make it easy for people to get their health data? … We want to keep the patients with us.“ We must fight back – it’s our health, your health. S...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: OP-ED Medical Records Michael Millenson Policy Issues Trends & Principles Source Type: blogs