HRBA News
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.
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).
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 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 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.
June 1, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff presented " A Feasible Path to Sustainable Community
Health Information Infrastructure" at the Northeast Florida Health
Information Initiative Summit in Jacksonville, FL.
April 20, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff gave the keynote
entitled “A Feasible Path to Sustainable Community Health Information
Infrastructure“ at the Medical
Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) meeting in Jacksonville, FL.
March 22, 2007: Need for
health information infrastructure for biosurveillance highlighted. In an
article entitled "Biosurveillance
Evolution" in Health Data Management, the importance of a national
health information infrastructure to provide the data needed by public health
agencies for early detection of outbreaks and other adverse population health
events is described. The article includes several quotes from an interview with
Dr. William Yasnoff.
March 22, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff to keynote Health Data Management's Clinical
Automation Summit to be held Sept. 17-18 in suburban Chicago.
March 7, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff discusses health record banks in an interview with Dr. Ron Pion
on BigMediaUSA.com Rx Radio: Your Prescription for Health.
Available for listening
or download.
March 3, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff answers questions about health record banks in an interview
with HIMSS
Insider.
February 28, 2007: The
Health Record Banking Alliance (HRBA) met in conjunction with the Health
Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference in New Orleans. If you
would like to receive ongoing announcements related to future HRBA meetings and
activities, go to the "Join and Log In" page,
click on "Join HRBA" and follow the instructions to enter your
contact information.
February 18, 2007: In a
New York Times article entitled "Warnings Over
Privacy of U.S. Health Network," Dr. William Yasnoff comments on the
need for increased privacy protection as a prerequisite to successful health
information infrastructure. The health record banking legislation from the last
session of Congress is also mentioned.
February 14, 2007:
William Yasnoff suggests health record bank for Wisconsin in an
interview with the
Wisconsin Technology Network.
February 2, 2007: Consumers key to Health IT progress: Article in HIT
News has information about the new version of the Independent Health Record
Bank bill.
December 22, 2006: UK adopts patient consent for access to electronic
health records as a key principle. See "Sharing e-health
info requires
patient consent". This is the central principle of health record
banking.
December 19, 2006: Washington State Governor requests $9 million for
Health Information Infrastructure.
Today Governor Gregoire of Washington released her proposed budget for the
2007-09 biennium. Included in the proposal is $9 million for health information
technology, supporting the recommendations in the report submitted on December
1st (see earlier news item). The breakdown of the $9 million includes:
• $8 million for the design and implementation of the health information infrastructure
and the pilot health record banks, and
• $1 million for the Washington Health Information Collaborative award program
assisting providers in the adoption and use of health information technology
system.
Inclusion in the proposal doesn’t mean the budgeted amount has been approved or
funded. Further
information is available at the Governor’s Web site detailing her budget
proposals for health care. The reference to health information technology is
mentioned on page 3.
December 19, 2006: It's Round Two for e-Health records bank bills. Health record bank bills to be introduced in next
Congress.
December 18, 2006: Washington State Unveils Its Health Information
Infrastructure Roadmap. NHINwatch describes the recently released report from Washington
State.
December 1, 2006: Washington State Report Recommends Health
Record Banks.
After a 16-month process of study and review, the Washington State Health
Information Infrastructure Advisory Board (HIIAB)
(created by the Legislature) has released its report recommending
the development of multiple Health Record Banks with some financial assistance
from the State. The report has an extensive review of the background, current
status, and available options for implementing health information
infrastructure. It concludes by recommending an incremental and achievable path
towards an effective health information infrastructure in Washington State
using Health Record Banks containing consumer-controlled copies of health
records from multiple sources. Participation in the system by consumers would
be voluntary. Dr. William Yasnoff served as the project consultant to the
HIIAB.
November 30, 2006: Louisville Moving Ahead with Health Record Bank. In Louisville, KY, a community-wide forum
of key healthcare stakeholders is being convened by the Mayor on 12/5/06 to
begin the process of establishing a Health Record Bank. The goal is to improve
quality and safety of health care, and reduce costs by as much as $100 million
annually. The Louisville Health Information Exchanges (LouHIE) hopes to enroll
300,000 to 500,000 people in the system, which will be developed in 2007 and is
anticipated to be operational by 2008. Patients would both have access to their
records and fully control their use.
November 18, 2006: Dr. William Yasnoff gave a plenary presentation at the
Annual Meeting of the National Foundation of Women Legislators in Avon,
Colorado (more information).
November 9, 2006: Dr.
William Yasnoff, founder and ceo of HRBA, gave a panel presentation at the Consumer-Centric
Healthcare Congress in Washington, D.C.
October 8, 2006: Dr.
William Yasnoff, founder and ceo of HRBA, gave a presentation on health record
banking at the Cerner Healthcare Leadership Forum in Orlando (conference home page and agenda
available).
September 29, 2006: Stakeholder
meeting in Seattle, WA, discussing Washington State proposal for health record
banking. Dr. William Yasnoff joins staff of the Washington State Health Care
Authority to discuss the draft recommendations of the Health Information
Infrastructure Advisory Board (audio/video presentation
- requires Windows Media Player). The final report of the HIIAB will be
released 12/1/06. More information on
the process is available.
September 21, 2006: Initial meeting of Health Record Banking Coalition reported in
Healthcare IT News.
September 21, 2006: HHS Urged to consider Health Record Banking - In today's report of the
appointment of a new interim National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology in Healthcare IT News, Dr. William Yasnoff urges HHS to adopt health
record banking model.
July 24, 2006: Response
of the Health Record Banking Alliance to HHS RFI (Request for
Information) on Voluntary Storage of Personal Information in
Preparation for Emergencies - In this response,
the health record banking approach combined with the eHealthTrust business model is described
in detail. Fourteen references are included.
HRBA Presentations
Upcoming
October 29, 2009: Dr. William Yasnoff, President of HRBA, will be presenting
at the Southern California
Health Care Summit in Ontario, CA.
Previous
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
November 8, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff presented a talk entitled “Health
Record Banks: empowering Consumers to Control Their Own Information“ at the
Consumer-Centric healthcare Congress in Washington DC.
September 17-18, 2007:
Dr. William Yasnoff gave a keynote at the Health Data Management's Clinical
Automation Summit held in suburban Chicago.
July 20, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff gave a keynote presentation at the 2nd Annual World Congress
Leadership Summit on The Road to
Interoperability in Boston, MA. This presentation <second file attached
to this email> was the subject of a subsequent news report "Privacy is
key to interoperability".
June 1, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff presented " A Feasible Path to Sustainable Community
Health Information Infrastructure" at the Northeast Florida Health
Information Initiative Summit in Jacksonville, FL.
April 20, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff gave the keynote
entitled “A Feasible Path to Sustainable Community Health Information
Infastructure“ at the Medical
Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) meeting in Jacksonville, FL.
March 6, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff participated in a panel entitled "Health Record
Banking" at the 5th
National Medical Banking Institute in Marietta, GA.
February 27, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff describes the need for health record banks to build the
nation's health information infrastructure in an editorial in
Healthcare IT News published during the recent HIMSS meeting in New Orleans.
February 25, 2007: Dr. William Yasnoff joined Dave Witter
(from Oregon) in presenting "RHIO
Business Models - Innovation for Sustainability" at the HIMSS RHIO
Symposium in New Orleans (just prior to the HIMSS 2007 Annual Meeting).
February 21, 2007: Dr.
William Yasnoff gave a presentation
entitled "A Feasible Path to Sustainable Community Health Information
Infrastructure" to the Health Information Exchange standing committee
of the Georgia Health Information Technology and Transparency (HITT) Advisory
Board (created by Executive Order of the Governor).
November 18, 2006: Dr.
William Yasnoff gave a plenary presentation at the Annual Meeting of the
National Foundation of Women Legislators in Avon, Colorado (more information).
Copyright 2009, HRBA