While the 21st Century Cures Act has had a few delays thanks to COVID-19, April 5th is still not that far away for healthcare organizations to make sure their ducks are in a row when it comes to compliance with the new information blocking rules. As we’ve covered before, this is a big shift for many healthcare organizations to immediately share health information with patients. Not only is this a lift technically, but it’s probably a bigger lift culturally for many healthcare organizations.
Given this increased sharing of patient records, I always like to turn to the HIM community to understand the implications of these new rules. As most know, HIM generally takes charge of the ROI (Release of Information) requests that come to a healthcare organization. You’d think that these new rules would really change things for HIM, but as I’ve learned over the years, there’s a lot more to ROI than meets the eye. First, many ROI requests aren’t from patients (see lawyers and payers). Second, there’s a difference between getting your full legal health record and what’s required to be shared with patients automatically as part of the Cures Act.
I recently sat down with Sue Chamberlain, MSCTE, RHIA, CCS-P, CDIP, VP, Compliance and Education at RRS Medical, to talk about these nuances and differences. We also talk a bit about how COVID-19 and the coming Cures Act has impacted and will impact release of information.
As more patients are getting access to their health data, we also discussed the risks patients should consider as part of these new data sharing regulations. Plus, we talk about the role of HIM in these new regulations and what an HIM professional should do to make sure they and their organization are prepared.
Check out this discussion of the 21st Century Cures Act and ROI from an HIM professional perspective.
Learn more about RRS Medical: https://www.rrsmedical.com/
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