Connecticut Senate President Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) and Connecticut Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven), wrote an op-ed in the New Haven Register encouraging the health IT industry to find workable solutions for interoperability, including a senate bill that would make patients the owners of their health records.
According to Sens. Looney and Fasano, more than $300 million of the federal investment in health IT has gone to Connecticut. The senators discussed in their op-ed the ONC’s information blocking report, which found some IT vendors and large institutional providers are intentionally blocking the free flow of information for their own profitability.
“This misuse of taxpayer subsidized health IT systems undermines the goals of health reform and jeopardizes patient health,” the senators wrote. “In our opinion, such activity amounts to taxpayer fraud and falls short of expected standards of patient care.”
The senators have co-introduced a total of nine bills related to hospitals and the healthcare industry. SB No. 812 seeks to promote the statewide implementation of EHRs as well as a statewide HIE.
“Our proposed Senate Bill 812 begins and ends with a simple concept: Patient health records belong to the patient and should be made available to patients and their provider of choice,” wrote the senators. “Providers should be expected to facilitate the electronic exchange of information. Our bill would discourage providers and vendors from imposing barriers on sharing information by making such activity an unfair trade practice subject to civil penalties.”
A system in which independent providers using proprietary systems will be wasteful and lead to poor care quality, the senators wrote. Additionally, they said the state needs an “accountable neutral system” to empower patients to make informed decisions, improve the delivery system’s efficiency and promote public health.
“Taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to put electronic medical records in Connecticut hospitals and physician offices, yet we still face a fragmented costly system that undermines patient care,” the senators wrote. “Closing these gaps and ensuring patient and physician access to vital health information is an investment we cannot afford not to make.”
More articles on interoperability:
Former National Coordinator Dr. Brailer on why Americans don’t — but should — own their health information
Dr. Karen DeSalvo’s 3-step plan for interoperability
‘Digital Doctor’ author Dr. Robert Wachter defends Epic’s business model, product
