More US Patients To Have Easy, Free Access To Doctor's Notes
Source: AP News
More U.S. patients will soon have free, electronic access to the notes their doctors write about them under a new federal requirement for transparency.
Many health systems are opening up records Monday, the original deadline. At the last minute, federal health officials week gave an extension until April because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Britta Bloomquist of Duluth, Minnesota, has been reading her clinical notes for years, first struggling through red tape and more recently clicking into a secure online patient website.
It means information about your care can no longer be hidden from you. And you have a say in your care, said Bloomquist, 32, who has a rare type of arthritis that took years to diagnose.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-virus-outbreak-dc762ec0fd60f363adc8e5d4ce42b7ff
Patients have long had a right to their medical records, including doctor notes, but obtaining them could mean filling out requests, waiting for a response and paying fees. A 2016 law said delays and barriers must be removed.
About 15% of health care systems already are letting patients read doctor notes online without charge. That means about 53 million patients already have access to their doctors notes.
Doctors notes tend to use abbreviations. SOB means short of breath.
Budi
(15,325 posts)Targeted advertising will love this!
procon
(15,805 posts)intrepidity
(7,294 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)Is there a booming black market sales of chest xrays and old EKGs in your conjecture?
intrepidity
(7,294 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,338 posts)Art brings a lot at auctions.
winstars
(4,220 posts)soothsayer
(38,601 posts)KT2000
(20,576 posts)I still laugh about that one.
Response to appalachiablue (Original post)
winstars This message was self-deleted by its author.
procon
(15,805 posts)thru my Kaiser ins. I can read everything in my medical record online. Sometimes my doctor's notes takes me aback and its quite startling to see yourself described as 'a cheerful, elderly Caucasian female in frail health...' Those blasts of harsh reality certainly do not match my Superwoman persona.
birdographer
(1,323 posts)lets us see all lab results, other test results, various diagnoses, but no doctor notes. Those could be very interesting.
erronis
(15,241 posts)My state-wide portal has been inaccessible since Thursday. They've reverted to good old paper records.
My guess is that the Russkis have infiltrated the Epic system which we recently implemented. Prolly after trumpf gave putie the go-ahead.
bucolic_frolic
(43,128 posts)Now they'll see and write less.
keithbvadu2
(36,770 posts)Trump just sent his bully boys to go steal them.
Turbineguy
(37,317 posts)that scare the crap out of me.
sakabatou
(42,146 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,278 posts)publishers, too!