AMA Advocacy Leads to Federal Reforms in Patient Data Sharing

Strategic Insights -

Thanks to years of American Medical Association (AMA) advocacy, physician practices will soon benefit from long-overdue federal reforms that make sharing patient data faster, easier, and more complete. The new federal interoperability agreements require all participating electronic health records (EHRs) to connect directly to national data-sharing networks approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These systems must now deliver real-time, full patient information, including clinical notes, images, and medication lists that physicians actually use in care.

Key Takeaways:

  • The new federal interoperability agreements require all participating EHRs to connect directly to national data-sharing networks approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
  • EHRs must support seamless access to full medical records, including unstructured data such as PDFs and images.
  • Automatic encounter notifications will alert practices within 24 hours when their patients go to the emergency department, are hospitalized, or see another provider.
  • Patients will be able to present digital IDs or QR codes at check-in, allowing outside records to flow directly into the EHRs without creating new portal accounts.
  • Smart visit summaries will allow patients to receive structured summaries of their visits, ready to take home, without creating extra login accounts.
  • The AMA is pushing vendors to deliver these capabilities in a way that works in the small-practice environment, including streamlined click paths and filterable alerts.
  • Physicians should start conversations with their vendors to confirm timelines for 24-hour encounter alerts, support for updated connection capabilities, and patient identity verification without new portal accounts.

Statistics:

  • 24 hours: the time frame in which practices will receive alerts when their patients go to the emergency department, are hospitalized, or see another provider.
  • 100%: the requirement that participating EHRs connect directly to national data-sharing networks approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
  • Roaming ID or QR codes: the digital IDs patients will use to quickly access their medical records without creating new portal accounts.

Sources:

  • American Medical Association. (n.d.). Press Release: AMA Announces Federal Reforms to Improve Patient Data Sharing. Retrieved from https://www.ama-assn.org/ [Source]
  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (n.d.). Electronic Health Records Interoperability. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/index.html [Source]