Harmony Healthcare IT Launches Medical Record Consumer Access Solution


“We’ve developed a secure means to integrate historical EHI into the EHR or patient portal so it can be included in the release of information,” said Dave Navarro, Senior Director of Data Science at Harmony Healthcare IT.

Harmony Healthcare IT (Harmony), a leading data management firm, released a new HealthData Integrator™ offering, Secure Record Delivery, to help U.S. healthcare providers comply with the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act). The solution enables the transmission of an archived patient record from Harmony’s HealthData Platform™ to an electronic health record (EHR) endpoint.

This interoperability advancement supports best practices in health data exchange, providing consumer access to historical patient records as regulations and penalties around the Information Blocking provisions of the Cures Act expand. Historical medical records are made accessible to patients in a familiar manner so the facility may meet an exception to the Information Blocking provision of the Cures Act [45 CFR 171.103].

“As part of the Cures Act’s call for greater interoperability, healthcare providers may not ‘knowingly or unreasonably interfere’ with the exchange of electronic health information (EHI),” said Dave Navarro, Senior Director of Data Science at Harmony Healthcare IT. “As archived patient records are EHI, they should be included with active EHR records when a consumer request is fulfilled. We’ve developed a secure means by which to integrate that historical EHI into the EHR or patient portal so it can be included in the release of information.”

Secure Record Delivery is made available through HealthData Integrator™, the data activation component on Harmony Healthcare IT’s market-leading HealthData Platform™. HealthData Platform™ is an enterprise-wide, cloud-hosted infrastructure that secures patient, employee, and business records for healthcare delivery organizations.

Secure Record Delivery enables HealthData Platform™ users to navigate the Information Blocking Provision of the Cures Act and better serve patients. The solution is aligned with current and anticipated future designated record set requirements for the information that must be provided for patient record requests to remain compliant with the provision.

To date, there are two phases for the Information Blocking timeline:

· Phase 1, which has been active since April 2021, states that EHI is limited to data defined by the United States Data for Core Interoperability V1 (USCDI V1). The data included in USCDI is a content standard that is a baseline of health data elements such as demographics, problems, allergies, medications, and clinical notes.

· Phase 2 began Oct. 6, 2022, and includes a broader set of “all patient EHI” which has organizations reviewing their definition of a HIPAA designated record set. The Harmony Healthcare IT solution is aligned with current and future versions of the USCDI.

Implementation of Secure Record Delivery by Harmony Healthcare IT’s clients include the following benefits:

· Satisfies the Information Blocking Provision of the 21st Century Cures Act by allowing the delivery of an archived medical record to an active EHR endpoint or patient portal for consumer access

· Securely integrates with industry-leading EHRs with the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) and other encryption methods (See listing on Epic’s Connection Hub)

· Increases patient satisfaction by allowing electronic delivery of a more complete historical record upon request

For more information about HealthData Integrator™ Secure Record Delivery and its impact on historical patient record request fulfillment in relation to the 21st Century Cures Act, listen to this HealthData Talks podcast episode with guest Dave Navarro, Senior Director of Data Science at Harmony Healthcare IT.

About Harmony Healthcare IT

Harmony Healthcare IT is a data management firm that moves, stores, and releases patient, employee, and business records for healthcare organizations. To strengthen care delivery and improve lives, vital information is preserved and managed in a way that keeps it accessible, usable, interoperable, secure, and compliant. Since 2006, its US-based team of experts has worked with over 550 unique clinical, financial, and administrative software brands used in healthcare delivery organizations. Harmony Healthcare IT has been consistently ranked as the #1 data extraction, migration, and archival healthcare IT company according to Black Book™ Market Research for four years (2019-2022) as well as ranked #1 in the 2020 Best in KLAS Software & Services Report as a Category Leader in Data Archiving.

For more information about Harmony Healthcare IT, visit: http://harmonyhit.com.

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