Source: Health Data Management
While few of us need (or have time for) a history lesson, it’s wise to consider recent regulatory changes in the context of what came before them. Knowing where they come from helps us understand where they’re going in the future. For instance, the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule and Final Cures Act Rule from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, respectively, are designed to make healthcare data more broadly available to patients and prohibit healthcare organizations from blocking patient access to data. While patients have had the right to access their healthcare data and move it from one place to another under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, passed in 1996, this process became challenging with the adoption of electronic health records.