The American College of Radiology (ACR) is asking the radiology community to provide it with information on cases in which hospitals or electronic health record (EHR) vendors proactively block the sharing of healthcare information.
This type of information blocking could include when a hospital or EHR vendor prohibits, discourages, or excessively charges for appropriate and secure exchange between referring providers' systems and those of unaffiliated radiology practices, according to the ACR. The organization said it's working with the American Medical Association and other physician groups to collect information to help the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) understand the extent of the issue in which vendors are proactively blocking the sharing of information.
As a result, the ACR is seeking information on the following:
- Fees charged by EHR vendors or others to connect radiologists with ordering providers who use the vendors' products
- Interface costs to connect a site's IT network with products from its referring providers
- Contractual limits on parties with which EHR vendors or providers will exchange information
- Contract language that explicitly states that EHR vendors own data
- Interface costs to connect with health information exchange (HIE) networks
- Monthly or per-transaction costs associated with the use of health information service providers
- Costs to update or change between two EHR technology solutions.
- Any other charges/fees required to exchange data
To provide feedback, email ACR's director of regulatory and legislative affairs Michael Peters by February 4.
