ONC Tiger Team: Proposed 'access report' doesn't meet HITECH requirements

ONC's Health IT Policy Committee has agreed with its Tiger Team's recommendations that the proposed accounting of disclosures rule, including its creation of an "access report," is overbroad.

In the committee's Dec. 4 meeting, the Tiger Team reported that it "does not believe the proposed access report meets the requirements of HITECH to take into account the interests of the patient and administrative burden on covered entities (CEs)."

To that end, the Tiger Team is pushing for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to "pursue a more focused approach that prioritizes quality over quantity, where the scope of disclosures and related details to be reported to patients provide information that is useful to patients, without overwhelming them or placing undue burden on CEs."

The proposed accounting for disclosures rule, which implements the provision in the HITECH Act extending the existing accounting of disclosures law when records were in electronic form, was widely unpopular when issued in 2011. The HITECH Act itself, enacted in 2009, did not require that CEs create "access reports" for patients.

The Tiger Team held a virtual hearing Sept. 30 to gather information about the proposed rule and reported that it found no support that the proposed access right was "doable" from a technology standpoint.

At the Dec. 4 meeting, the team also recommended that HHS take a "step-wise" approach in implementing this provision of HITECH and focus initially on EHR disclosures outside the CE or OHCA, using a "follow the data" approach.

ONC has made accounting of disclosures an optional criterion for EHRs in its 2014 edition of the criteria to allow for flexibility and innovation in this area.

It is not known when a final rule will be forthcoming.

To learn more:
- check out the meeting materials