Report: ONC requires measures to enhance patient access to records

While the Department of Health and Human Services has several attempts to enhance ability of patients to access their electronic health information, HHS lacks the capability to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives. ONC requires measures to enhance patient access to records.

That is the conclusion of a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that particularly calls out the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT for its shortcomings in this place. ONC requires measures to enhance patient access to records. ONC requires measures to enhance patient access to records.

In spite of the fact that ONC is needed by the HITECH Act and the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act to establish performance measures for the adoption of electronic health records and related efforts to serve the electronic use and exchange of health information, ONC hasn’t established a specific means for measuring outcomes linked with its efforts targeted at furthering patients’ ability to electronically access their health information, in accordance to the GAO.

“Without such initiatives, HHS lacks critical information essential to determine whether each of its efforts are contributing to the overall goals of department, or if these efforts require being modified in any way,” claims the GAO report.

For example, auditors charge that ONC can’t determine if sufferer electronic access is higher for participants in the Blue Button Initiative, in contrast with access rates for non-participants, or if providers who use the Patient Engagement Playbook—a tool established by the agency to help providers in using patient portals to engage patients—acquire more patient electronic access than non-users.

To deal this shortfall, the GAO suggested that the HHS Secretary direct ONC to establish performance measures to assess outcomes of key efforts related to the electronic access of patients to longitudinal health information, involving determining whether the number of providers that participate in these initiatives have higher rates of patient access to electronic health information.

Additionally, auditors suggested that the HHS Secretary direct ONC to use the information these performance measures provide to make program adjustments—where suitable. “Such actions may involve, for instance, assessing the status of program operations or recognizing areas that require improvement in case to help achieve program goals related to increasing patients’ ability to access their health information electronically.”

ONC and HHS are seeking to the comments as opportunities for improvement, officials claim.

“HHS and ONC analyzed and concurred with the recommendations,” claims Acting National Coordinator Jon White, MD. “The GAO report is a good opportunity to review our efforts.”

In a written response to the GAO report, HHS claimed that ONC would “make every effort to develop performance measures for sufferer education and outreach initiatives but would have to balance these attempts with its efforts to develop measures for the adoption of EHRs, interoperability and sufferer engagement nationwide.”

Moreover, HHS demonstrated that ONC would use the data the performance measures provide to make program adjustments, and that it is devoted to using such metrics to guide program improvement.

“We are looking forward to working on those suggestions,” adds White. “We have got great measures on how the technology works and how the certified technology offers people access to information. But we are looking forward to establishing new, better measures on individuals getting access to their data.”