The eHealth Initiative published a new research uncovering the reality that only 9 percent of healthcare providers are currently compliant with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s 2015 Edition for EHR certification. 

ONC’s 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria (known as the 2015 Edition) required health IT to demonstrate it can provide access to Common Clinical Data Sets (i.e. date of birth, race, ethnicity, vital signs, medications, lab tests, care team members, immunizations, assessment and plan of treatment, etc.) via an application programming interface.

[Also: List: 29 new products added to ONC's 2015 Certified Health IT database]

The CMS’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System and Meaningful Use requirements for Stage 3 require making such APIs available to patients. Providers in these programs also are subject to new information blocking prohibitions.

The eHealth Initiative asked 107 health IT executives how far along they were in complying with the new patient access requirements and discovered only 9 percent were fully compliant with the ONC’s 2015 EHR certification (no longer required for 2018) through products that enable open APIs.

Forty-one percent of the 107 execs said they are in the process of implementing technology, 13 percent are evaluating options/are in the planning phase, 12 percent are waiting for guidance from IT vendors, 7 percent are aware of requirements but have not started, 3 percent are unaware there were new requirements and have not started, and 15 percent are not sure, the survey found.

On the subject of patients sharing more information, the eHealth Initiative dug in deeper. When asked if more patients are asking to see their data, 35 percent of healthcare executives responded they’ve seen a major or moderate increase in requests, 40 percent said a minimal increase and 20 percent said no change, according to the survey.

When it comes to patients wanting to provide information in addition to what is in their EHR record, 27 percent of survey respondents reported a major or moderate increase, 35 percent said a minimal increase and 33 percent said no change.

Patients want to share all kinds of information with other clinicians. According to the survey, 68 percent of patients wish to share lab data, 56 percent imaging results, 51 percent prescription information, 36 percent blood pressure readings, 34 percent diabetes monitoring data, 27 percent other provider reports, 16 percent weight readings, 15 percent medication adherence data, 12 percent wearable data, and 8 percent food diaries.

So what is the impact of increased access to patient information? The providers surveyed point to a variety of factors. 75 percent of respondents said increased access improves patient engagement in their care, 65 percent improves quality of care, 62 percent improves patient satisfaction, 38 percent reduces costs, 21 percent increases costs, 5 percent reduces quality of care, 2 percent reduces patient satisfaction, and 1 percent reduces patient engagement in their care, the survey found.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com