Thursday, March 16, 2017

I got my Data

A while back several of us HIT Geeks and e-Patients were having a discussion about HIPAA, patient data access challenges, et cetera.  Prior to that I had written a post connecting the various dots between HIPAA, the Omnibus rule, MIPS and MACRA, and the Certiufication rule.

In that conversation I accepted an implicit challenge to get my health data via unencrypted e-mail.  I wrote to someone at my healthcare provider organization in early January and then got caught up in various meetings and never followed up.  Two days later I had gotten some resistance.  My healthcare provider has a portal, which I use and can quite easily get my data already, and in fact often do, which was probably another reason for resistance.

When I finally responded in early February with my acknowledgement of the risks and the fact that I understood them, I got my data the very next day.  I'd made my point.  Two emails and I had it.  Any delays in getting it were my own fault for not following up.

Caveats: I have a good relationship with my provider organization, and also know important thought leaders in that organization and they know me.  I was able to make points others might not be able to. But, when breaking trail, it's usually a good idea to put the person most experienced at it out in front, yes.  And that's where I was and what I did.

  -- Keith


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