CMS Administrator Seema Verma has set a goal for digital health information to replace the current use of fax machines in physician offices to send patient information by 2020.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services envisions a health ecosystem that has a free flow of information between patient, provider, and payer as mentioned by Verma during the ONC's Interoperability Forum in Washington, D.C.
CMS is hunting for developers to build the consumer-friendly application for Medicare beneficiaries to connect their claims data to the applications, services and research program they trust.
Verma’s aim is to break down barriers to interoperability, where medical decisions are taken with medical history in consideration, health history follows consumers where ever they go. Third parties can make use of the EHRs, data is used to treat as well as prevent illnesses and researchers use the information to develop cures.
EHR exhausts physicians instead of making things easier so, physicians still record their notes on paper. Patients are told their data cannot be shared with another provider. In actuality its because of the fear of patients being poached.
The aim is to liberate data to put patients in charge of their healthcare.