BOSTON- An organization representing the information management outsourcing industry is taking issue with a new Illinois law that provides wide access to information from electronic health records, saying it unnecessarily boosts hospitals' costs without providing adequate reimbursement.
The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services, based in Boston, said it's concerned about the impact of two medical record acts that became law on January 1.
The new laws made Illinois the first state to mandate that health records maintained in electronic or digital format be provided electronically to authorized requestors if they request the information electronically and the facility that maintains the records is able to do so.
The laws clarify and expand access to medical documents and provide fee guidelines covering the transfer of electronic information, which is half the per-page charge allowed for paper records. The law requires healthcare practitioners who use electronic records systems to provide a written explanation for why they are unable to provide information electronically when it's requested.
"Laws governing the dissemination of protected health information must establish fees that appropriately reimburse hospitals for the costs they incur in providing the information," said Bonnie Caffey, president of the AHIOS.
The organization contends that providing copies of patient health records is not a straightforward process that's been facilitated by the use of electronic medical record technology. Rather, it says, multiple formats for records still exist, making information procurement more difficult.
"The reality is that the majority of hospitals keep records in a variety of formats - paper, electronic, microfilm, microfiche among them," said Caffey. "Compiling all the records for a specific request and making sure that the requestor is authorized, that only the authorized information is released and that all sensitive information is excluded are time-consuming steps."
Because of the diversity of records formats, providing health information has gone up in price, not down, she contends.
"Pricing that fails to recognize the care that is taken to safeguard against improper information release unfairly penalizes healthcare practitioners and even provides a deterrent to more widespread healthcare information technology adoption," Caffey added.
The organization also is concerned that the Illinois legislation could be setting a precedent for similar legislation in other states.
Finally, the organization said it's concerned that the legislation sets up a situtation that may slow the transfer of information and may increase the likelihood of litigation.