Dive Temporary:
- An influential lawmaker is pushing digital well being report distributors to undertake options that enable sufferers extra management over their medical knowledge in a bid to spice up cybersecurity.
- In a letter despatched to 10 well being IT and EHR corporations, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pointed to a function adopted by Epic, the nation’s largest EHR vendor, that notifies sufferers about which healthcare organizations have entry to their medical data and lets them decide out of knowledge sharing.
- Wyden requested the distributors if their affected person portals have comparable performance and whether or not they’d decide to deploying these options. “Whereas interoperability improves care by enabling higher knowledge sharing, it have to be balanced with sturdy privateness protections for delicate well being data,” he wrote within the letter shared with Healthcare Dive.
Dive Perception:
Interoperability — a long-term problem for the healthcare trade — is essential to making sure sufferers obtain coordinated and high quality care, no matter supplier, Wyden wrote within the letter, which was despatched to firms like Athenahealth, Oracle Well being and Meditech.
However healthcare knowledge is commonly delicate and coveted by cybercriminals, who’ve more and more focused healthcare organizations in recent times.
In 2024, a cyberattack on UnitedHealth-owned cost processor Change Healthcare uncovered the info of almost 193 million folks within the largest healthcare knowledge breach ever reported to federal regulators. And this 12 months has included breaches that compromised the data of hundreds of thousands, together with incidents at Yale New Haven Well being and dialysis agency DaVita.
Although improved interoperability generally is a boon for care supply, widespread entry to well being knowledge may go away many sufferers susceptible to breaches, wrote Wyden, the rating member of the influential Senate Finance Committee.
“Presently, the delicate well being knowledge of the overwhelming majority of People could be accessed by well being suppliers in states across the nation, no matter whether or not these suppliers are literally treating the affected person, or whether or not the affected person has ever stepped foot of their state,” he wrote. “Such widespread entry exposes sufferers to the specter of improper entry, theft, and leaking of their delicate well being data.”
Nationwide safety is also affected, permitting spies to extra simply entry well being knowledge on army and intelligence personnel, he added.
However options put in place by Epic at Wyden’s urging may assist sufferers management the circulation of their data, he mentioned. The performance lets customers know which organizations have entry to their well being report, prompts them to substantiate their preferences once they obtain delicate care and permits them to say no report sharing, in line with the letter.
The lawmaker requested the distributors whether or not their affected person portal or interoperability framework had comparable options, like permitting sufferers to decide out of report sharing or give them a listing of healthcare organizations utilizing the identical EHR which have accessed their data. Distributors ought to reply to the letter by Jan. 20.
A spokesperson for Netsmart, one of many distributors that acquired the letter, informed Healthcare Dive it can reply on to Wyden and “stays engaged in trade discussions associated to affected person entry, consent, and knowledge governance.”
Meditech is making ready a proper response and “shares [Wyden’s] dedication to affected person privateness and empowerment,” a spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
Joe Ganley, vice of presidency and regulatory affairs at Athenahealth, additionally confirmed it had acquired the letter.
“We share Senator Wyden’s view that interoperability frameworks could be developed in ways in which guarantee healthcare knowledge flows extra freely whereas additionally defending affected person rights and knowledge safety. We stay up for working along with his workplace on this vital difficulty,” he mentioned in an announcement.
