Data is the New Oil: Propelling Patient Data Sharing with State and Federal Regulations
By Tom Dailey
According to a recent Bloomberg article, 16.9% of U.S. GDP now goes toward healthcare spending, nearly double the 8.8% global average as measured by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For comparison, Americans spend a mere 7.1% of GDP on food.
How do we start bringing the U.S. in line with the rest of the world? We have all heard the phrase, “Data is the new oil” so let’s start there.
While Federal law has long encouraged hospitals and healthcare systems to embrace the use of EHRs, the sharing of patient data across otherwise unaffiliated platforms is still lacking. That’s a problem because delivering efficient care team collaboration and patient-centered care demands the sharing of Protected Health Information (PHI) across the entire ecosystem. In other words, to maximize its utility in driving down costs, healthcare data needs to be fluid.
As we begin a new decade, digitized records and related clinical information must increasingly be securely shared not only between doctor and patient, but between hospitals and the surrounding community of primary care, emergency care, and specialty providers. It isn’t enough for a hospital system to be able to transmit PHI between clinical and administrative staff on its own platform—cross-platform interoperability is essential. However, getting comfortable with sharing mission critical data isn’t something that comes easily to everyone.
Some providers resist interoperability over security concerns. Others resist on competitiveness grounds (“why share my patient data and diagnoses with a competing provider?”). This sort of reticence is not without precedent: technological disruption happens all the time and the impact is often most strongly felt among the more established institutions or enterprises. Ask anyone in the telecommunications, media or personal computer industries about the Schumpeterian effect of the internet.
The good news is that new federal and state regulations are in place to help drive interoperability. The 2009 HITECH Act moved healthcare providers toward the use of EHRs through the “Meaningful Use” program. The Final Omnibus Rule of 2013 filled in gaps in the law around encryption standards and generally made healthcare providers better aware of the requirements for securing data both at rest and in motion. More recently, CMS has made a strong push toward reducing reliance on fax and encouraging digital health information exchange with its Promoting Interoperability (PI) program.
The states have also been moving in the right direction. For example, effective July 1st, Florida passed a forward-looking law, FL 843, that requires hospitals and emergency care facilities to notify a patient’s primary care provider when the patient is admitted to or discharged from the facility. The law also gives the patient’s PCP the opportunity to be consulted in the development of the patient’s care plan. The Florida law’s enhanced continuity of care goal nicely complements the CMS PI program, and is a sensible regulation that other states should consider. Of course, the challenge for Florida hospitals and ERs will be finding ways to efficiently communicate with a broad cross-section of PCPs who are unlikely to be on the same EHR platform or use the same Health Information Exchange (HIE).
Enabling healthcare providers to transfer PHI efficiently and securely across electronic platforms is something that CEOs and information technology executives, not to mention provider legal counsel and regulatory compliance teams, should want to address soon. Cross-platform data communication and provider directory technologies will advance the goals of Meaningful Use/PI and drive new levels of interoperability, promote continuity of care and enhance patient-centric care.
Disruptive innovation is a good thing, and maybe some more oil in the gears will put a dent in that 16.9% we spend on healthcare today. Reach out to careMESH by email, to learn more.
Tom
Tom Dailey is a global business strategist, policy pioneer and innovative general counsel with more than 25 years of experience across a cross-section of subject matter areas ranging from federal, state and international regulation to managing the legal, regulatory and compliance functions for multi-billion-dollar business operations in the US and abroad. He is a licensed attorney in Massachusetts.
This article is not intended to provide, and should not be construed as providing, legal advice or opinions on Florida law or healthcare law in any jurisdiction.