Ensuring Patient Access to Healthcare Records Act Reintroduced
December 24, 2017

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) recently introduced a bipartisan bill aimed to give health data clearinghouses the ability to provide more comprehensive health records to patients who request for it same way they do when requesting from healthcare providers.

In a statement released by Rodgers, she reiterated: “Even in the age of technology, it can be difficult for patients to obtain their comprehensive health records. Whether it’s because of a move to a new state, switching providers, an unexpected visit to the emergency room, or a new doctor, patients must track down their own records from numerous different sources based on what they can or cannot remember. It shouldn’t be this burdensome. Our bill gives patients the ability to see a snapshot of their health records at just a simple request, allowing them to make better, more informed healthcare decisions in a timely manner.

Companies that function as intermediaries who forward claims information from healthcare providers to insurance payers are known as clearinghouses.  These companies include billing services, repricing companies, community health management information systems, and value-added networks and switches if these entities perform clearinghouse functions. The relevant records that these clearinghouses stores include information about diagnoses, medical treatment, and healthcare providers for each patient-provider interaction.

In HIPAA’s point of view, these entities can either be covered entities or business associates depending on situations. But the new bill would see these companies as covered entities with the same rights and responsibilities as other covered entities in respect to patient information. Moreover, HIPAA limits clearinghouses from providing patients with longitudinal health records or allowing stakeholders access to information obtained by analyzing patient health outcomes. Despite the limitations imposed by HIPAA, this new bill allows patient full access to their health data. Such access are provided if the purpose is any of the following : research purposes, public health purposes, and patient’s request for his or her own PHI.

From the above, it can be deduced that public health authorities like FDA, CDC, state health departments, and other public health entities are seen to benefit if the bill is passed. These organizations will have the ability to collect and receive health information from health data clearinghouses to prevent or control disease, injury, or disability among patient populace.

This new bill furthers the goal of the law enacted last December 2016 (21st Century Cures Act) that designated $1 billion in grants for states over two years to fight the opioid epidemic.

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