Post by HealthMark Group

To date, the foundation for interoperable health information exchange in this country has been trust. Trust that information is both accessible when needed and appropriately protected. Trust that it's limited to caregivers and constituents that I as the patient approve, and that it'll be used for my benefit and not to my detriment. And trust that my personal health data is not exposed to bad actors or commercial entities who can exploit it without my knowledge. Absent that trust, the system fractures. At HealthMark, we are firm believers that patients deserve to trust that their health information is being appropriately protected and shared only for legitimate, transparent purposes. But a new lawsuit filed by Epic this week has exposed system-wide cracks eroding that trust, with serious accusations around how patient data is being exploited for financial gain. The balance between promoting access to and protecting the privacy of health information for patients is the fundamental challenge of our health information ecosystem, and it's at the core of everything we do at HealthMark. We believe that clear, thoughtful regulatory guardrails for how health information is accessed and shared are necessary to rebuild patient trust and support safe, appropriate data exchange at scale. In a new article, HealthMark CEO and AHIOS president Bart Howe provides commentary on what this latest in a series of high-profile lawsuits means for patient privacy, and how initiatives intended to serve patients' needs can actually have unintended consequences if not appropriately balanced with the right patient data privacy protections. https://lnkd.in/gHdZ9SQW