Increased Patient Access To Data Under MU3

Meaningful Use 3 Importance

In 2011, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) set in motion a progressive 3-stage EHR Incentive Program, called Meaningful Use 3 (MU3), to encourage patient involvement in their health care. Stage 3 has been established for the 2019 reporting year with the goal of allowing patients to easily access and transfer their data. A key element is that providers may not prohibit patients from using any application, including third-party applications, which meet the technical specifications of the API.

EU Opens Up User data

In the European Union, lawmakers have established similar initiatives in the financial industry. The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), for example, has been enforced since early 2018. Under this directive, banks operating in the EU will now be forced to open up their customer data to third party firms, provided customers give consent. This is a significant step towards open banking which will give non-banking firms the chance to compete with banks and give consumers more choice over financial products and services.

Why Is This Important?

Today, patients are faced with the challenge of having medical records spread out across health systems. When patients move from one setting of care to another, they need access to their data in order to make informed decisions. 1upHealth is committed to bridging this gap between patient data and provider needs in order to improve healthcare outcomes.