Becker's Hospital Review

32 CIO / HEALTH IT How HHS' proposed interoperability rules will affect patients, EHR vendors By Jackie Drees O NC's proposed interoperability rules will require the healthcare industry to adopt standardized application programming interfaces to al- low patients to access their medical records via smartphone apps, according to a Jan. 19 Capital Times report. Former HHS Secretary Tommy ompson in a January op-ed criticized the new in- teroperability rules, saying that the regula- tions will force EHR giant Epic to hand over its trade secrets to competitors and harm Wisconsin's economy. e rule would require companies to make their health records soware more interop- erable and allow healthcare providers to share patient data with outside organiza- tions. It would also put patients in charge of their health data by guaranteeing easy access to their medical records through third-party smartphone apps. Epic executive Sumit Rana told the Capital Times that the proposed rules would require Epic and other EHR companies to "share their intellectual property with venture capitalists and others seeking to monetize patient data." Mr. Rana added that the rule would jeopardize patient privacy if regulations for app vendors aren't properly enacted before the rule is established. "e rule would hurt the thriving health IT sector here in Wisconsin and consequently endangers the economy of the state," Mr. Rana said. Nick Hatt, a senior developer at Redox, an interoperability startup founded by three for- mer Epic engineers, said the company views the new rule as a positive for patients. "[e rule is] not designed to help the big tech companies get more data and take over and displace people," Mr. Hatt said. "It really is cen- tered around the patient and what the patient can do. It's about patient access to data." HHS has not yet announced when the new rules will be released, and Mr. Hatt said it's still "too early to tell" whether Mr. ompson is right that the new rules will threaten Epic and other EHR vendors. n Epic CEO Judy Faulkner asks hospitals to oppose HHS' interoperability rule By Jackie Drees E pic CEO Judy Faulkner on Jan. 22 emailed some of the EHR giant's largest U.S. hospital clients, asking them to voice disap- proval of HHS' proposed interoperability rule, CNBC reported. The rule, which Ms. Faulkner wrote could be finalized by ONC wby the end of February, would require companies to make their health records software more interoperable and allow providers to share pa- tient data with outside organizations. Additionally, the rule would give patients free and direct access to their medical data via third-party smartphone applications. Ms. Faulkner's letter was addressed to health system CEOs and pres- idents and asks them to sign a letter alongside Epic to voice their op- position of the proposed rule. "HHS needs to hear from you so they understand that you feel these issues are important. Very little time is left," Ms. Faulkner's letter stated. "We are concerned that healthcare costs will rise, that care will suffer and that patients and their family members will lose control of their confidential health information." Ms. Faulkner has previously voiced her concern for the rule, saying that it can affect patients' privacy because app developers will have access to their data without consent, according to the report. An ONC spokesperson told CNBC that patient choice was a top priority when creating the rules, which were introduced in 2019. "We want the public to have computational right of access to health information so they can have control over apps of their choosing," the spokesperson said. n Cerner withdraws bid to sell portion of its Innovations Campus By Jackie Drees C erner retracted its bid to sell a portion of its Kansas City, Mo.-based Innovations Campus to developers for "retail and mixed-use," according to a Jan. 14 Kansas City Business Journal report. The EHR vendor made the decision to withdraw its request after failing to reach an agreement with the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City. Cerner and the TIF Commission had been negotiating for months, according to the report. Cerner's bid was to be permitted to sell off the portion of its campus to developers "but still reap the incentives from those specific proj- ects to cover costs elsewhere the campus," the publication reported. The TIF Commission did not approve the request and instead present- ed a plan that would keep some development outlined in the current TIF area plan, excluding retail. Because Cerner withdrew its bid, the company must revert to its previously approved request to own and develop all the mixed-use portion of its campus. n

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