Leveraging state and federal laws allowing for easier access to patient medical records during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, HealtHIE Nevada, a statewide health information exchange (HIE), has reported a 36 percent increase in the number of patients whose health data has been accessed in their system.
In a recent announcement made by the HIE’s leaders, Nevada law requires that healthcare organizations and patients take multiple steps in filing paperwork that formally gives permission to have their health data shared among their doctors. This process, known as “opting-in” to allowing one’s data to be shared, differs from the vast majority of other states, including Arizona and Utah, that automatically enroll patients, but allow them to opt-out of health data sharing if they so choose.
“This opt-out process continues to protect patient privacy but allows access to significantly more data with far less administrative burden on already busy providers, offering higher value to patients,” HealtHIE officials noted.
But during the pandemic, HealtHIE Nevada, which has kept its opt-in policy in tact due to state regulations, has been able to share data for those patients whose default consent is to opt-out because they have never been asked. To be clear, however, if a patient has chosen to opt-out—rather than it being the default selection—his or her data would not be shared via the HIE.
HealtHIE Nevada, collects medical records from acute care hospitals, emergency departments, urgent care sites, skilled nursing facilities, doctor offices, laboratories, imaging centers, and other healthcare organizations across the state. In total, more than 70 organizations in the state are connected on the network.
As a result of this recent effort, 23 more Nevada care providers, including Health Care Partners, are now connected to the system, “affecting thousands of patients and returning hundreds of wasted hours back to doctors who are likely to experience dangerous delays, costly rework, errors, and wasteful inefficiencies that a COVID-19 stressed healthcare system cannot afford,” officials noted.
In March, HealtHIE Nevada announced that it would begin offering doctors no-cost access to its HealtHIE Chart provider portal. HealtHIE Nevada’s connections to the State Public Health Lab, Southern Nevada Health District, Washoe County Health District, private labs, and the majority of diagnostic services provide COVID-19 and other test results.
“Similar to how the federal government relaxed HIPAA requirements to advance telehealth solutions during this worldwide quarantine, this emergency access allows our organization to give doctors access to crucial medical information on their patients to combat deadly COVID-19 cases,” said Michael Gagnon, executive director, HealtHIE Nevada.
Regarding the state’s consent law, Gagnon added, “When not in a state of emergency, our state’s current opt-in consent law for patient data has proven to be a cumbersome process for doctors and patients that ultimately limits the potential of Nevada’s healthcare system. We’d like to see this become a permanent legislative change, even after the pandemic subsides, in order to vastly improve public health and ongoing patient care in Nevada.”
