2016 Posts

A Road Map for States: Addressing Privacy and Policy Barriers to the Availability and Flow of Electronic Health Information

Lucia Savage | December 9, 2016

Data show that individuals expect to be able to access their health information, making it readily accessible and securely shared among their health care providers to support effective clinical decision-making. And here at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), we are committed to providing the electronic health information infrastructure to support the nation’s transition to a health system that rewards quality over quantity to achieve better care,

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Highlighting a Way to Advance Interoperability and Reduce Costs for Lab Tests

Steven Posnack | November 18, 2016

Last year, Health Level Seven International (HL7) released an implementation guide that provides a standardized way to exchange the catalogs of (thousands) laboratory tests and services that a clinical laboratory can perform. We wanted to highlight the implementation guide’s potential to not only advance interoperability, but also to create cost savings and improve patient care.

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New Resources to Help Providers Maintain Access to Protected Health Information

Lucia Savage | November 1, 2016

As electronic health record (EHR) adoption becomes widespread, and providers increasingly embrace the patient engagement opportunities of digital health, EHR customers look to EHR vendors to ensure that health information is available where and when it is needed. And yet we know from our experience that many providers continue to face challenges when they seek access to protected health information (PHI)—challenges that could impact patient care and safety. That’s why we are highlighting two recent resources that improve the awareness of EHR vendors’ obligations to make health information available to their health care provider customers.

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