Interoperability within health care has long been a goal within the health care IT ecosystem. Historically, interoperability has been focused on providers exchanging data with other providers under HIPAA. Although advances have been made, true data liquidity between providers, consumers, and caregivers has yet to be achieved. It is essential to find better ways to share data with those in the care value chain to achieve the vision of value-based care.
Recently, Ryan Howells, Principal at Leavitt Partners, provided remarks at the HL7 Partners in Interoperability conference. During his speech, Ryan explained how consumer-directed exchange, which is the right of a consumer to invoke their individual right of access under HIPAA and request their health information through a third-party application, will help advance the principles of interoperability and ultimately value-based care. By advancing consumer-directed exchange of health information via Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) across the U.S., consumers can be more involved in the health care decision-making process for themselves and their families.
HIPAA, HITECH, and the Cures Act provide the legislative foundation to enable consumers access to their electronic health information more readily, but more work has yet to be done. The CARIN Alliance (Twitter: @carinalliance)– a multi-sector alliance convened by David Brailer, David Blumenthal, Aneesh Chopra and Mike Leavitt in 2016 – focuses on removing the barriers to consumer directed exchange through their technology, policy, adoption, and trust framework workgroups.
Leavitt Partners believes that advancing health IT is one of many issues that is important to achieving value-based care. Leavitt Partners alliances are a great resource to help organizations learn from each other and develop best practices for overcoming common industry barriers. If you would like to learn more about the CARIN Alliance, please contact Ryan Howells at [email protected].