HealthIMPACT Live Presents: Harnessing the Power of Automation to Address the Information Blocking Rule and Empower Healthcare Consumers
Original Published Date: May 23, 2022
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/nMjpfq15oVI
The Cures Act Information Blocking Rule aims to pull down the barrier between Americans and their health data, and have that data delivered electronically in a timely manner. What it means for healthcare consumers is easier access to their electronic health information and the ability to better understand and make more informed choices about their medical care. For healthcare providers, it means meeting stringent new regulatory requirements by Oct 6, 2022. According to the Office of the National Coordinator, over 300 patients, providers, and others have already submitted claims of information blocking through its online portal since April 2021.
In this session, you will hear how providers can prepare to address the new regulations by leveraging the power of intelligent automation.
Yan Chow, MD, MBA, Global Healthcare Leader, Automation Anywhere
Shahid Shah, Publisher and Chief Editor, Medigy.com
Janae Sharp, Founder, The Sharp Index
Matthew Sullivan, MD, CMIO, Atrium Health
Tony Sharp: I am Tony sharp, and I'm sitting down with Dr. Matt Sullivan to talk about information blocking and the cures act, and I would love it if you could introduce yourself, and looking forward to this conversation.
Matt Sullivan: yeah, well, thank you very much for having me, I met Sullivan I'm the CMO at Atrium health I'm an emergency physician originally in my training and also board certified in informatics, and I've been working in this space for a while, so glad to talk to you.
Tony Sharp: Thank you, I'm looking forward to this, too, I love the cures act and, in theory, you know, the idea that patients can have their data, everyone can have the data that they need and their health data. I'd love to hear from you like how repairs our providers our health systems and how are they responding to this, the cure of act.
Matt Sullivan: I think there's a couple of answers embedded in that question, so the providers are struggling a little bit with this; this was an act that was given to us. In the way that sometimes the Federal Government gives us things and in such so doing, the providers didn't really have an option to react in a way that I don't think they were fully informed, frankly. And that's part of the problem, and so I think that the intent of the law is good, the idea that patients have their data is a good thing, the idea of how and when is the hard part for us to figure out, and so when we try to understand exactly when is the right time for someone to get the diagnosis of cancer that's a tough one. Who's supposed to deliver that information?
I think many of our providers are really concerned that tech savvy patients have access to the portal and have access to their medical record. And it's not that we're saying that they shouldn't it's the that when those test results, whether it's a CT scan or whether it's a series of laboratory tests, come back if they don't have the medical document to digest the answer understand what it means, or, in some cases, even put the pieces of care together with where they are in their stage of care.
Then it complicates the delivery of care and it affects the the way that the patient receives their illness and perhaps even the patient-physician relationship. And that's troubling because generally positions we'd like to maintain that position patient relationship, and we'd like it to be good. We think it's, you know, part of the profession, and so it's really upsetting, and I'll use the emergency setting where I've practiced for many years as an example. The idea that you would think that someone has maybe diverticulitis and you're worried about an abscess, you get a CT scan.
And before you have a chance to see the results yourself, maybe you're taking care of another patient or two.
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Matt Sullivan: And the patient has, you know, full-blown metastatic cancer in their abdomen that they didn't know about.
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Matt Sullivan: And the patient sees that on their telephone on their APP before you have the opportunity to go in and and set up the care.
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Matt Sullivan: And those of us that are really trying to practice really well.
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Matt Sullivan: With see those results, make a phone call try to figure out who their primary care physician was maybe even call it the oncology to arrange follow up and really walk into the room fully prepared to deliver bad news.
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Matt Sullivan: With the idea that we have our arms around the patient to say hey, look, I'm really sorry you don't have diverticulitis know abscess, but you have something else, and it looks like you have pretty bad cancer I've talked already with our oncology team where they want to see you tomorrow, and that's the kind of healing that we'd like to do, unfortunately.
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Matt Sullivan: You know that the cures act requires that we release that data immediately and.
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Matt Sullivan: And so there's really no good way to know who's going to have a bad result isn't doesn't.
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Matt Sullivan: Now, I think the solution is simple, the solution is that you have a conversation with the patient and you say hey.
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Matt Sullivan: i'm going to order a test here and I don't know what's going on, I think it's these things, but there may be something really bad that's happening here.
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Matt Sullivan: Would you rather that I tell you the results or would you rather get those on your corner and if the patient says, I absolutely want those on my portal as fast as possible.
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Matt Sullivan: If the patient says, I would love it if you would tell me the results, and then we can talk about them, then I believe that there's no legal problem with holding those results until you've had time to make that conversation.
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Matt Sullivan: we've explored that I think that's a viable option, I think that's the way that patients really have control of their medical record I think that's actually the spirit of the law is that we want the pain.
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Matt Sullivan: of control.
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Matt Sullivan: So.
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Tony Sharp: that's a long winded referring to yeah, this is a good answer I like I thought about that too, like with.
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Tony Sharp: Having babies like I got tests and sometimes those like what is this event like Why am I even doing this.
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Tony Sharp: So it's I like the idea of patients, being able to control it, and being able to have support from their their doctors and that perspective that it's about like what what the best care is and.
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Tony Sharp: I got seems like one of the drawbacks, what are the, what are the pros that you've seen like across the industry, whether that be like technology or I think I think of a story like my grandma.
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Tony Sharp: Be with.
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Tony Sharp: he's looking rural Washington right and she's like after will get some nuclear tests like she would always talk about the test she had to go get, and all this stuff and.
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Tony Sharp: And, just like she like may just trying to get you to get all the tests, you know so when I think of information blocking sometimes I think about like my old grandma like going around being like optic at the same test again.
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Tony Sharp: really good voice in person, my second delay.
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Tony Sharp: So I wonder like have you seen anything that's kind of a development or or ways that help you deliver better pair or decrease costs.
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Matt Sullivan: Well, I don't know that we could say that that the idea of releasing information quickly to a patient is going to lower the cost, I think the idea that we.
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Tony Sharp: Had the point right.
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Matt Sullivan: But I think that the idea that we would not withhold information releasing it to another organization may and again.
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Matt Sullivan: Going back to where I worked for a while, in the emergency space if you've already had a CT scan done at a facility that's not yours.
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Matt Sullivan: And it was done yesterday there's probably not a lot of good reason to repeat that and there's really it would really actually accelerate the care and you need to know hey i've already got yesterday they did all these tests.
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Matt Sullivan: We don't really need to repeat all of them, we might need to repeat one or two or we might need to do something differently.
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Matt Sullivan: But certainly withholding information is not the right answer and that's that's true interoperability and that's that's been sort of the Holy Grail for a while, is trying to get our systems across the US to talk to each other.
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Matt Sullivan: But I think that your point about your grandmother is your grandmother may or may not know how to interpret those results when she goes to get that new branch.
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Matt Sullivan: That is.
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Matt Sullivan: But maybe.
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Tony Sharp: You could not.
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Matt Sullivan: Well, maybe she's really savvy.
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Matt Sullivan: Maybe your grandmother is been dealing with diabetes or hypercholesterolemia or something for the rip for a long time, and she knows all the details and so she really wants to know.
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Matt Sullivan: My cholesterol doing the same or better and maybe the doctors already said, your grandmother look i'm going to draw your cholesterol again and it's always been to 50 we can get it down below to 20 we're doing a great thing here.
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Matt Sullivan: If it's higher i'm going to need to add different medicines but we'll figure that out when the lab tests come back and then your grandmother it looks at our phone.
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Matt Sullivan: On our brand new iPhone and she's five servers as opposed to 10 sweet I don't need to go on another medicine or she says oh it's 260.
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Matt Sullivan: she's gonna call me back and i'm gonna have to add on another medicine bummer but that's the kind of conversation that physicians already have of the patient to lay out the groundwork.
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Matt Sullivan: And, in some cases there are patients that are really tech savvy and medically savvy around their own conditions where they will want to get those information that that kernel of information really quickly to them.
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Matt Sullivan: So that they're happy and that they understand what the next step is and even if it's bad news, the next step.
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Matt Sullivan: may be fine they understand it, because they've been prepared for it, and I think that was also part and parcel of.
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Matt Sullivan: What we're trying to get out here with the 21st century cures Act was.
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Matt Sullivan: letting patients engage with their health information and engage with their physician to have that conversation so that everybody's a little bit smarter about it, and I think that's a pretty good thing you know where we all have endless amounts of time it would.
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Tony Sharp: be great.
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Matt Sullivan: With patients and.
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Tony Sharp: talk.
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Matt Sullivan: mostly about this stuff and get them fully prepared and then it would be easier actually to take care of them.
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Tony Sharp: yeah I think that's a good point you just made to if we had a lot enough time time is really.
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Tony Sharp: The most valuable commodity right so have you seen tools that or whether that be technology or or the way you work together that have helped save time with it.
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Matt Sullivan: Well, specific to the curious after releasing information, I think, part of the deal is is you've got to take that information delivered to the physician in a quick easy manner and then have the physician recognize that it's there.
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Matt Sullivan: For the physicians team office recognize that it's there.
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Matt Sullivan: And then act on it and so any of the tools that we have seen that have helped with message Center inbox kind of management and hierarchy to say okay look here, the new things that you need to look at pretty quickly.
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Matt Sullivan: These are flagged as abnormal probably how to deal with those first allows us to get out the information more quickly and then deliver that information to the patient in a timely manner.
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Matt Sullivan: And I think that supports that the intent of the law it's also good care patients love that it increases satisfaction, so those technology tools.
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Matt Sullivan: You know I think we're gonna we're going to see more and more of their use.
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Matt Sullivan: Certainly in that for real life.
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Tony Sharp: Well, I could use that in my real life yeah.
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Matt Sullivan: Well, I think that's you know time management is and lab management result management all of those things, and as we think about what might happen in the future, as far as developments of.
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Matt Sullivan: Innovation, you know how do we, how do we take really bad news and quickly deliver it to the right person at the right time.
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Matt Sullivan: So that everybody gets information as quickly as possible, but but gets it in a way that is really kind and really consistent with how I think most of us want to practice medicine.
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Tony Sharp: Like a.
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All right.
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Tony Sharp: and
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Tony Sharp: I have any more questions about that.
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Matt Sullivan: All right, I didn't think was gonna be long.
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I mean.
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Tony Sharp: yeah I want to thank you for.
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Tony Sharp: That story and for sharing that perspective of of the challenges with patient data um.
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Tony Sharp: What do you want to be in the future, like.
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Matt Sullivan: I actually.
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Tony Sharp: Think in data.
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Matt Sullivan: yeah, I think, as far as the 21st century cures act goes i've seen a number of the faq responses from the unc and we're on the.
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Matt Sullivan: You know, in the first stages of where some degree of you know authority will come in.
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Matt Sullivan: And right, you know smack down somebody and i'd like to at least see a little bit of judgment there and i'd like to actually start to think about the national conversation around, how could we take the law and make it better in some way to deliver a smoother transition.
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Matt Sullivan: Obviously I don't want to see say oh yeah everything has to be held, I think that's inappropriate I don't think that anybody would think that.
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Matt Sullivan: I think most of us generally understand that for very complicated processes very complicated lab tests that need interpretation.
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Matt Sullivan: Just from the test, but not only that, but the interpretation of what that test means in relation to the patient.
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Matt Sullivan: I think those things, probably need a fine tooth comb and there needs to be some changes in the law to accommodate that and not hold hospital systems and providers in some sort of you know, breaking the law kind of a mode I, I think that we can do that.
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Matt Sullivan: With a more.
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Matt Sullivan: appropriate national discussion, and I think that probably will happen here i've seen a number of states do this we've watched a couple of States create their own version of this.
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Matt Sullivan: I don't know that I have a good idea who's doing the best, but I think if we took that kind of conversation and took it to the national level we'd be one step ahead.
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Tony Sharp: I think that's a good idea, so if anyone from the national.
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Tony Sharp: level wants to connect with you will send them your way.
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Tony Sharp: and
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Tony Sharp: want to thank you for for sharing that and for coming we're going to also hear from Dr yan Shell from automation anywhere.
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Tony Sharp: they've done some work with with automating prophecy like and billing and and they're going to share what they found with with this with information blocking as well.
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Matt Sullivan: Wonderful fortune.
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Tony Sharp: Alright coming back.
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Matt Sullivan: she's talking.