David C. Kibbe, MD, CEO and president of DirectTrust, testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions today on information blocking.
The HELP committee hearing is titled "Achieving the Promise of Health Information Technology: Information Blocking and Potential Solutions."
Dr. Kibbe urged the federal government to take action against the issues impeding the share of health information between parties authorized to access electronic health data. He suggested:
• Working with tread groups and policy organizations to continue shedding light on the problem of information blocking
• Supporting improved EHR certification processes
• Accelerating federal agency use of a standards-based interoperable HIE
• Continuing to link ONC EHR certification to participating in value-based purchasing programs
"While the responsibility for assuring secure interoperable exchange resides primarily with the healthcare provider organizations and not with the EHR vendors or the government, I strongly believe there is a role for government to encourage and incentivize collaborative and interoperable health information exchange," he said during his testimony.