HITPC Releases Tiger Team EHR Amendment/Correction Recommendations
The ONC Health Information Technology Policy Committee (HITPC) released the Privacy & Security Tiger Team (Tiger Team) recommendations concerning amendments and corrections to electronic medical records (EMRs) in a letter to HHS on July 25, 2011 (HITPC Letter). The Tiger Team’s two recommendations are:
- Certified electronic health record (EHR) technology for Meaningful Use Stage 2 should have the capability to support amendments to health information as well as support compliance with HIPAA obligations to respond to patient requests for amendments, specifically (i) to make it technologically possible for providers to make amendments consistent with their obligations with respect to the legal medical record (e.g., access/view the original data and identify changes made); and (ii) attach any information from the patient and any rebuttal from the entity regarding disputed data.
- Certified EHR technology for Meaningful Use Stage 2 should have the ability to transmit amendments, updates or appended information to other providers to whom data in question had previously been transmitted.
The recommendations address the concerns of stakeholders regarding technological capabilities of EHR systems to assist covered entities in complying with HIPAA amendment and correction procedures for their EMRs. They also address issues concerning data integrity and quality when correcting errors in patient information not at the request of the patient or communicating updates in patient information.
HIPAA requires covered entities to comply with specific procedures for correcting or amending protected health information (PHI) within their records where a patient requests such correction or amendment. In addition, the principle of “correction” was adopted by the Nationwide Privacy and Security Framework for Electronic Exchange of Individually Identifiable Health Information, which requires timely means provided to individuals to dispute the accuracy or integrity of their health information.
The Tiger Team recommends that the HIT Standards Committee develop standards, specifications and criteria for the certified EHR technology, and that any technological capabilities be kept as simple as possible to start. Capabilities could evolve over time and become more complex, including “potentially greater standarization and automation.” Most notably, the Tiger Team rejected placing affirmative obligations on providers to inform other providers and entities about errors which were not identified in response to a patient’s request, citing the “range of different errors that could occur” and the potential difficulty in distinguishing between what was a difference in medical opinion and an actual error, deciding,
…Providers’ existing ethical and legal obligations were sufficient to motivate them to use appropriate professional judgment regarding when to inform any known or potential recipients of amendments to health data.
Finally, the HITPC letter notes that the Tiger Team considered whether health information exchange organizations (HIOs) should be obligated to correct errors and transmit amendments or updates to affected providers where they may be responsible for such errors. The Tiger Team has specifically sought input from the HITPC and will continue to research existing HIO policies prior to developing future recommendations on this issue.
The full HITPC letter may be found here: HITPC Privacy & Security Tiger Team Amendment Recommendations
