In its comments, the AHA said is supports patients’ access and ability to play a more active role in their healthcare decisions, but the proposed regulation would “pose significant operational challenges for hospital laboratories, particularly those that also act as reference laboratories for external providers,” according to the report. This is because reference laboratories do not create patient medical records for patients that are not currently being treated at the hospital, according to the report.
The AHA recommended laboratories should be able to decline a patient request for a lab report if it is unable to confirm the requestor is linked to the specimen, which could be a challenge for reference laboratories.
Related Articles on Hospital Laboratory Services:
HHS Proposes Rules That Would Allow Patients to Access Labs Via Health IT
