Epic sent a letter June 16 to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, and ONC’s Thomas Keane, MD, with its suggestions for improving the nation’s digital health infrastructure.
Here are five key takeaways from Epic’s letter:
- Epic says TEFCA — the national framework for securely sharing health data — is critical for the future. The company wants more use cases added, including one that helps people apply for government benefits like Social Security disability faster.
- Epic supports building a single, reliable database of doctors and healthcare organizations to help reduce mistakes in referrals and billing.
- Epic is in favor of using digital IDs, like those from Login.gov or CLEAR, to make it easier for patients to log into health apps without passwords. But it warned against forcing a one-size-fits-all approach and wants patients to still have the option to use regular logins.
- The company says some current certification rules for health tech are outdated and should focus more on making systems work better together.
- The company wants regulators to make it easier for healthcare organizations to understand what does — and doesn’t — count as “information blocking,” and to reward those actively sharing data through national networks like TEFCA.
