ONC Report to Congress Shows Flawed Health Data Sharing

Health data sharing and availability is still problematic in the healthcare sector, with many patients struggling to access their own health data, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health.

 The Office of the National Coordinator for Health (ONC) IT filed a report to Congress on EHR adoption across the healthcare sector, stating 96% of non-federal acute care hospitals and 78% of office-based physicians adopted certified health IT. However, the report states this information is not always accessible across systems and by all end users. For example, despite HIPAA's right to access, patients often still struggle to access their own health data. Providers also frequently lack access at the point of care, especially when data is located at various medical practices. In 2017, 51% of non-federal acute care hospitals had necessary patient data electronically available from sources outside of their systems at point of care and 53% of those same organizations were able to integrate electronically received health data into their EHR.

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