Source: Healthcare Innovation
More than one-third of health information exchange organizations (HIEs/HIOs) reported that laboratories have limited or refused to provide access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI), according to a 2023 national survey. A recent data brief from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP) highlighted findings from the survey, but stopped short of characterizing the impediments as “information blocking” under the 21st Century Cures Act without further investigation. Among HIOs that experienced impediments in access to data by laboratories, about 1 in 5 indicated that they were not at all able to overcome these difficulties to access lab data, the data brief said. Nearly 4 in 5 HIOs that experienced an issue with access to data reported that they were able to overcome difficulties due to lab impediments “to a small extent” (22%) or “somewhat” (57%). Notably, no HIOs reported that they had been able to “fully” overcome these difficulties to access data from laboratories and only 4% reported being able to overcome these difficulties “to a great extent.”