*** State Legislative Principles for Health Record Banks ***
December 24,
2010: The Health Record Banking
Alliance has developed State
Legislative Principles for regulation of Health Record Banks. These principles, offered in the
absence of existing comprehensive federal legislation, are designed to serve as
guidelines for state legislation to promote health record banks and protect
consumers who use them.
Health Record
Banking Alliance (HRBA™) is a
non-profit corporation formed to assist stakeholders in the promotion of
community repositories of electronic health records. Health Record Banks
improve the safety and efficiency of patient care, public health, and medical
research through the availability of secure and complete electronic lifetime
health records. For more
information, see our Fact
Sheet & Principles .
HRBA will assist communities and other
stakeholders plan, organize, fund, develop and operate secure repositories of
electronic lifetime health records. What is Health Record Banking?
Narrated Slide Show on Health
Record Banks
Upcoming HRBA Presentations
September 28,
2011: The President of HRBA, Dr.
William Yasnoff, will give the Distinguished
Informatics Lecture at the University of Minnesota. His presentation, entitled “Unifying Clinical Care and
Public Health,” will describe how health record banks not only provide a
feasible solution for community health information infrastructure, but also
serve to facilitate the ongoing collaboration of public health with clinical care
including early detection and prompt response to outbreaks. Watch this space
for a link to a recording (including slides) that will be available shortly
afterwards.
September 20, 2011: In a guest column for NHINWatch, Dr. William Yasnoff, President of the Health Record Banking Alliance, explains why health record banks are needed to successfully solve the health information technology problem for the nation.
August 18, 2011: The Australian government
announced the awarding of a $450+ million contract to provide a health record bank account to all residents by mid-2012. This initiative, known as the
Personally-Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) is a key part of
Australia’s 2011-12 health information infrastructure strategic plan.
January 23,
2011: The Health Record Banking
Alliance is pleased to highlight three sessions related to health record
banking given at the HIMSS 2011 Meeting in Orlando, FL (from 2/20-24): 1) Richard Marks (CEO,
Patient Command), "Health
Record Banking: Changing the Game for Healthcare Information Technology"
will be at 10:30 am on Tuesday (Medical Banking Institute); 2) Thomas Jones, MD (Chief Medical
Officer, Tolven), “Assuring Privacy of Health Care
Information in Health Information Exchange” will be at 1 PM on Tuesday (session 3032); and 3) Thomas Jones,
MD (Chief Medical Officer, Tolven), “Building and
Sustaining ACOs through the Meaningful Use of HIT: A
Look to the Future” will be at 11:15 AM on Thursday (event LFF5).
September 13,
2010: The
Health Record Banking Alliance submitted comments to CMS regarding the proposed modifications to the HIPAA Privacy Rule with
three recommendations: 1) Electronic patient records should be available to
patients promptly -- typically no more than 48 hours after they are requested;
2) Instances of "review" of such records by providers prior to
release should be minimized, and the time for such reviews (when absolutely
essential) should be no more than 72 hours; and 3) Patients should have the
choice to have their data transmitted by unencrypted email (although HRBA
strongly encourages the use of encryption). HRBA also believes that patients should not be charged
additional fees for electronic copies of their (already electronic) medical records.
August 31,
2010: Patient Privacy Rights released
a white paper entitled "The
Case for Informed Consent: Why it is Critical to Honor What Patients Expect–
for Health Care, Health IT and Privacy". In it, PPR indicates that "Health record banks or trusts are the
simplest and best solution to the challenge of storing and enabling the
exchange of data." We are delighted to have this strong
endorsement of health record banking from this leading national patient privacy
organization.
May 7, 2010: The Health Record Banking Alliance submitted comments to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in response to the proposed
"e-Prescribing" regulation. The HRBA response urges DEA to coordinate its provider authentication
requirements with other Federal agencies and private entities so that providers
can use a single set of credentials for a wide variety of online information
systems and transaction types.
March 15,
2010: The Health Record
Banking Alliance submitted comments to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to the
proposed "Meaningful Use" regulation. The HRBA response emphasizes
the central importance of consumers (or whomever they designate as their proxy)
being able to send their electronic medical information in standardized form to
a recipient of their choice, such as a health record bank, as soon as it is
generated.
February 5,
2010: Jim Hansen, CEO of CareEntrust, gave
a presentation entitled, "Developing and Executing a Business Plan for Achieving
Sustainability for Health Information Exchange" at the National
Health Information Exchange Summit in Washington, DC. He discussed how the health record banking approach can be a key element in achieving financial sustainability.
October 29,
2009: Dr. William Yasnoff, President of HRBA, gave a presentation at the Southern California Health Care Summit in Ontario, CA.
October 14,
2009: The Health Record
Banking Alliance has submitted comments to the HHS Office of the National Coordinator in response to their
"Consumer Preferences Requirements Document." The HRBA response emphasizes the
central importance of consumers' control of their own health information, and
the ability of health record bank architecture to easily and conveniently
implement consumer choices.
October 1,
2009: Perspective: Health Record Banking in an ARRA World. Patty Enrado, editor of the
Health IT news portal nhinwatch.com,
reports on the ongoing development and implementation of health record banks (HRBs) that is continuing after the passage of the
HITECH/ARRA legislation, and how HRBs can be the
foundation of health information exchange in communities in support of
meaningful use of electronic health records, allowing physicians to qualify for
stimulus funds. Dr. William Yasnoff, President of HRBA, is quoted extensively.
September 15,
2009: HIMSS/AMDIS
podcast on Health Record Banking. Jack
Varga, MD, Treasurer of HRBA, gave a podcast interview on health record banking.
August 28,
2009: HRBA sends
letters to State Banking Regulators. Today, in a letter to the banking commissioner in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the Health
Record Banking Alliance offered to provide advice and assistance in
establishing regulations for health record banks that ensure consumer
protection. Each letter included a
copy of the HRBA
Principles & Fact Sheet, which details the guidelines that HRBA members have
agreed to utilize in the operation of health record banks.
August 7,
2009: The cover story of
Federal Computer Week, "Is
the Nation's Health Network Healthy?", has several quotes from Dr.
William Yasnoff, President of HRBA, explaining the
advantages of health record banks and expressing concern about the feasibility
of the "network of networks" approach of the NHIN (Nationwide Health
Information Network) as currently being pursued by the HHS Office of the
National Coordinator for Health IT.
August 3,
2009: In an interview
on Federal News Radio, Neville Pattinson, VP of
Government Affairs and Business Development, Gemalto North America (an organizational member of HRBA), discussed the need for and
importance of smart card authentication, including in the context of accessing
and protecting the privacy of health information in patient-controlled health
record banks.
July 10, 2009: Dr. William Yasnoff gave a presentation entitled "How to
Develop a Sustainable Community Health Information Infrastructure" at
the Health IT
Workshop given by the Institute for Family Health (sponsored by the Health
Resources and Services Administration) in New York City.
June 17, 2009:
"Health care records should be user-friendly,
patients say", a Federal Computer Week article, describes how patient advocates are
encouraging the Obama administration to tailor the regulations relating to the
upcoming $18 billion in subsidies for health IT to give patients more power to
access and control their own electronic health records by including
patient-centric principles in the definition of "meaningful
use." It specifically
references the Health Record Banking Alliance.
May 19, 2009: (Spokane, WA) “Push
for More Patient Control of Health Records”, a news story on NPR Station
KPLU, describes the development of health record banks in Washington State and
Oregon.
May 6, 2009: (Washington, DC) HRBA
member Patient Command asked HHS
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to initiate a rulemaking
under the HITECH Act (part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) to
define interoperability criteria for the Qualified Electronic Health Record.
In their letter,
also sent to David Blumenthal, MD, HHS National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology, Patient Command proposed interoperability standards for
the Qualified EHRs using existing technology, with
the aim of initially defining a Qualified EHR as having the capability to input
and output medical record narrative under an XML schema maintained by NIST and
based on the Continuity of Care Document (CCD).
April 23, 2009: The Health Record Banking Alliance is grateful to HIMSS for permission to reproduce and present e-Session 403, "Introduction to Health Record Banking," from the recently concluded 2009 Annual meeting in Chicago. The session, submitted by Drs. Jack Varga and William Yasnoff, is a 20-minute narrated slide show describing the health record banking concept, rationale, operation, and advantages. No special software is needed -- just CLICK HERE and the presentation will run in your browser.April 7, 2009: Dr. Thomas Jones and Mr. Richard Marks gave a presentation entitled "Legal and Clinical Regulation of PHRs: The Current Framework" at the HIMSS Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL (Event #152, 1:00 pm, Convention Center W 190 b). Download presentation slides (ppt)
April 6, 2009: Drs. Deborah Peel
and William Yasnoff gave a presentation entitled
"Patient-Controlled Health
Record Banks: An Answer to the HIT Privacy Problem?" at the HIMSS Annual Meeting
in Chicago, IL (Event #52, 9:45 am, Convention Center S 406 b). Download slide
presentation by Dr. Peel (ppt) Download
slide presentation by Dr. Yasnoff (ppt)
April 6-9, 2009: Drs. Jack Varga and William Yasnoff presented an E-Session entitled "Introduction to Health Record Banking" at the HIMSS Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL (Event #152, 1:00 pm, Convention Center W 190 b). View HIMSS e-Session on Health Record Banking [We are very grateful to HIMSS for permission to reproduce this e-Session here!]
March 30, 2009: Dr. William Yasnoff presented "Health IT Opportunities and
Challenges" at 3:45 pm to the National Council on Disability meeting in Washington, DC.
March 25,
2009: (Salt Lake City,
UT) The Louisville Health
Information Exchange (LouHIE) has selected 3M Health Information Systems to provide the electronic health record banking system for the
greater Louisville area. 3M and its partner, InterComponentWare,
Inc. (ICW), will design, build, and pilot an integrated health information
network that will offer free health record banking services to all 1.2 million
citizens in the greater Louisville community.
March 18, 2009: (Wenatchee, WA) Local pilot project allows patients to see,
update their own medical records online. The local newspaper reports on the
community health record bank that just began operations.
March 16, 2009: The State of Washington announced that three Health Record Bank pilots are now operational. The pilots, in Bellingham, Cashmere,
and Spokane, were funded in 2008 through the Health Care Authority in
collaboration with the Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board
(HIIAB). They represent the first
consumer-controlled, community-based electronic health record repositories in
the nation. Health Record Banks
provide consumers with the opportunity to access and fully control copies of
their health records held securely on their behalf. See also Health
Record Banks Gaining Traction in Regional Projects, State
Starts Health Records Bank Pilots, Washington
state launches pilot projects for health record bank, and Washington
State Launches Pilots To Test Health Record Banks.February 23, 2009: Dr. William Yasnoff gave a presentation at the closing keynote panel, "Privacy
in a Networked Era – Preparing for the Future of Health Care Delivery" at the World
Healthcare Congress 2nd Annual Leadership Summit on Consumer Connectivity in Carlsbad, CA.
February 17,
2009: Perspective: Taking a closer look at health
record banks in Washington State and Oregon. Patty Enrado,
editor of the Health IT news portal nhinwatch.com,
reports on the ongoing health record bank implementation efforts in Washington
State and Oregon.
February 12,
2009: Dr. William Yasnoff gave a presentation on the panel "The Impact of
Data and Information on Health Care Delivery — Understanding Technology and
Legal Constraints to Success" at the Healthcare in 2009 meeting sponsored by Baker & McKenzie and Bank Street Group in New York,
NY.
February 2,
2009: Perspective:
Health Record Banking Gaining Traction. Patty Enrado, editor of the Health
IT news portal nhinwatch.com, reports on
the rapidly growing interest in health record banking, including the ongoing
development in health record banks in communities across the country.
February 1,
2009: The Health Record Banking Alliance released its White
Paper on Health Record Banking.
January 19,
2009: In a podcast
interview for IT Compliance Advisor,
William A. Yasnoff, MD, PhD, talks about privacy
issues related to health IT and how health record banks can address them.
January 15, 2009: The Health Record Banking Alliance today joined a broad coalition of organizations including the Progressive Policy Institute, American College of Cardiology, Cerner Corporation, Patient Command, National Alliance for Hispanic Health, and the Self-Insurance Institute of America to endorse a pragmatic set of recommendations for requirements and priorities attached to health IT expenditures in the Economic Stimulus bill now being considered by Congress. We recommend that all EHRs be required, at the request of the patient, to produce human-readable text output of that patient's record in XML format either 1) as recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), or 2) using an XML format with a schema that the EHR vendor has filed with NIST. Further, this copy should be available within 24 hours of the request at no charge to the patient.
For funding directed to health information
exchanges, we recommend that priority be given to those projects that pursue
and achieve the goals of: 1) making information available 24/7 in XML format
from every health care source serving the population of the HIE; 2) including
full audit trails in the information available (to facilitate privacy
protection); 3) fully and accurately authenticating the identify of all users;
4) serving safety net providers, the underserved, and the disabled; and 5)
achieving a sustainable business model.
We believe that adoption of these recommendations will help ensure that health IT funds are productively used to implement
systems that will enable third party organizations to act on behalf of patients
to assemble a comprehensive copy of their records, while ensuring that patients
have control over who has access to which portions of that copy. We urge Congress to incorporate them in
the Economic Stimulus bill.
December
19, 2008: Business Week
online op-ed on Health Record Banking. In an op-ed in Business Week online entitled "Electronic
Records Are Key to Health-Care Reform", William A. Yasnoff,
MD, PhD, describes how health
record banks can solve the problem of making complete patient records available
at any point of care and providing EMRs to all
physicians while fully protecting individual privacy. He then outlines
the policies that the new Obama Administration should adopt to encourage the
development of health record banks with only modest new Federal expenditures.
December 18,
2008: HIMSS publishes
new book on PHRs featuring the health record bank
model. The book, "Personal Health Records: The Essential
Missing Element in 21st Century Healthcare," is co-authored by
Holly Miller, MD, MBA, William A. Yasnoff, MD, PhD
(Founder and President of HRBA), and Howard Burde,
Esq. It provides a comprehensive overview and discussion of the many issues pertaining
to the adoption and use of personal health records, with chapters on PHR
architecture (including the health record bank model), PHR law, and PHR
business sustainability models.
December 6,
2008: President-Elect Obama announces his commitment to universal
electronic medical records: "We will make sure that every doctor’s office
and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic
medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help
save billions of dollars each year." President-Elect's
Weekly Address
December 5,
2008: Drs. Katherine Ball and William Yasnoff gave a presentation entitled "Averting the Collision: Privacy Doctrine & Health
Information Exchange" at the eHealth Initiative
Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Meeting
Agenda.
December 1,
2008: "Wal-Mart Launches E-Health Program", Business Week 8 Dec 2008. Describes Wal-Mart's push to get its
employees to sign up for Dossia, the health record
bank it sponsors in cooperation with Intel, BP, and other large corporations.
November 20,
2008: Government Health IT Editorial, "Reinstate
e-health privacy", by Dr. William Yasnoff explains why the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not really assure privacy.
August 24, 2008: Washington State announces three health record bank pilots.
July 10, 2008: In a letter
published in the New England Journal of Medicine (extract --
subscription required for complete text), the weakening of privacy that would
result from extending HIPAA to personal health records (PHRs)
or health record banks is explained. More
information.
June 9, 2008: "Medical
Records You Can Bank On" in For the Record magazine.
June, 2008: "Banking
on Patient Control" in Healthcare Informatics magazine.
May 27, 2008: Journal of AHIMA
article, "Who
Pays for Health Record Banks?"
May, 2008: Journal of
AHIMA cover story, "Taking
Medical Records to the Bank"
December 11, 2007: The Health Record Banking Alliance is featured in this article about Dr. Yasnoff in the Wall St. Journal.
November 8,
2007: Dr. William Yasnoff gave a talk entitled “Health
Record Banks: empowering Consumers to Control Their Own Information“ at the
Consumer-Centric healthcare Congress in Washington DC.
October
26, 2007: Today a report strongly advocating
health record banks entitled “Improving
Health Care: Why a Dose of IT May Be Just What the Doctor Ordered”
(overview) was released by
the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. It was presented at a National Press Club event that
included remarks from Health IT Now! Co-chair, former
Congresswoman Nancy Johnson. Additional information.
For all the lastest news and developments affecting health
record banking, visit our News page.
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