Transparency Requirements of New Electronic Health Records Present a Huge Challenge to Health Care Industry
Over the past year there has been a lot of talk and speculation about Electronic Health Records (EHR). The topic started making headlines last year as President Obama and Senator McCain sparred over how to best fix health care with EHR touted as the single best way to control the ever increasing costs of medical treatment. Although it remains to be seen if this is actually the case, the recent stimulus bill passed by Congress on February 13th, 2009, has ensured EHR projects will be funded.
Approximately $20 billion dollars of stimulus money has been allocated for the purpose of moving health care towards the use of electronic health records for patients, which signals a large amount of growth in the health care IT sector for the foreseeable future. Along with the funding of EHR is the inevitable regulation that seems to permeate spending bills coming out of Washington D.C., the inclusion of these ERH provisions could turn into a boon for IT but it what is not being talked about is that should be of concern to IT.
If you dive into the details of the stimulus bill you will find areas that will challenge health care providers and EHR software vendors as they start down the long and complicated road of electronic health records. One area of concern is based on providing transparency for privacy concerns as the wording in the bill states "an individual shall have a right to receive an accounting of disclosures described in such paragraph of such information made by such covered entity only three years prior to the date on which the accounting is requested".
This language basically states that a patient will have the right to receive an audit trail of all disclosures of their EHR made through electronic record. This paragraph stunned us as we immediately thought of the many facets of IT this would touch. But it also made me realize that how many avenues for disclosure of EHR there are. Although this doesn't take effect immediately after the bill is signed, it does signal what must be accomplished over the coming years to make this happen.
Health care has been making a private push into the electronic medical record arena for some time but there is much to be done to meet a mandate for disclosing a three year audit trail of all accountings of a medical record. Current EHR implementations would have to achieve an auditable work flow, as well as audit trails showing who accessed what information, all while retaining the records for a lengthy period. Storage requirements alone for this type of undertaking will be staggering. But, that doesn't answer the auditable avenue that will also be front and center: How to control and monitor email distribution of EHR.
Email has been and will continue to be an avenue in the distribution of EHR and understanding the role email plays in health care will be vital in ensuring an accurate auditable record can be provided to those patients requesting such information. Only through the use of products such as Estorian's LookingGlass will entities covered by this regulation be able to accurately track and audit EHR through email disclosure in their environment.
While the final wording in the stimulus bill is only now being released on a wide scale, all indications are that a wide reaching EHR funding push has begun with more privacy regulations to surround EHR. As is usually the case with government bills, the devil is in the details, and the details are slowly making their way to the public. Mandates such as the patient accounting of their EHR are well intentioned to protect patient privacy rights but ensuring this can be accomplished underscores the magnitude of issues that will face health care IT in the coming years.
Approximately $20 billion dollars of stimulus money has been allocated for the purpose of moving health care towards the use of electronic health records for patients, which signals a large amount of growth in the health care IT sector for the foreseeable future. Along with the funding of EHR is the inevitable regulation that seems to permeate spending bills coming out of Washington D.C., the inclusion of these ERH provisions could turn into a boon for IT but it what is not being talked about is that should be of concern to IT.
If you dive into the details of the stimulus bill you will find areas that will challenge health care providers and EHR software vendors as they start down the long and complicated road of electronic health records. One area of concern is based on providing transparency for privacy concerns as the wording in the bill states "an individual shall have a right to receive an accounting of disclosures described in such paragraph of such information made by such covered entity only three years prior to the date on which the accounting is requested".
This language basically states that a patient will have the right to receive an audit trail of all disclosures of their EHR made through electronic record. This paragraph stunned us as we immediately thought of the many facets of IT this would touch. But it also made me realize that how many avenues for disclosure of EHR there are. Although this doesn't take effect immediately after the bill is signed, it does signal what must be accomplished over the coming years to make this happen.
Health care has been making a private push into the electronic medical record arena for some time but there is much to be done to meet a mandate for disclosing a three year audit trail of all accountings of a medical record. Current EHR implementations would have to achieve an auditable work flow, as well as audit trails showing who accessed what information, all while retaining the records for a lengthy period. Storage requirements alone for this type of undertaking will be staggering. But, that doesn't answer the auditable avenue that will also be front and center: How to control and monitor email distribution of EHR.
Email has been and will continue to be an avenue in the distribution of EHR and understanding the role email plays in health care will be vital in ensuring an accurate auditable record can be provided to those patients requesting such information. Only through the use of products such as Estorian's LookingGlass will entities covered by this regulation be able to accurately track and audit EHR through email disclosure in their environment.
While the final wording in the stimulus bill is only now being released on a wide scale, all indications are that a wide reaching EHR funding push has begun with more privacy regulations to surround EHR. As is usually the case with government bills, the devil is in the details, and the details are slowly making their way to the public. Mandates such as the patient accounting of their EHR are well intentioned to protect patient privacy rights but ensuring this can be accomplished underscores the magnitude of issues that will face health care IT in the coming years.
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