Individual Access Services (IAS) is becoming increasingly important in the United States as the healthcare industry continues to shift towards a more patient-centered approach.
With recent milestones in the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act and the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), the future of IAS in healthcare is looking better than ever.
Health Gorilla and CLEAR®
Health Gorilla has partnered with CLEAR®, a secure identity verification platform, to launch IAS, which allows users to access their personal health information securely. The program will begin in Puerto Rico with the Puerto Rico Health Information Exchange (PRHIE), and expand to other regions in the future.
Health Gorilla will embed Powered by CLEAR to seamlessly verify a consumer’s identity. By verifying their identity with CLEAR, citizens of Puerto Rico can leverage Individual Access Services through Health Gorilla to easily and securely access their medical records and share them with authorized healthcare providers.
"The partnership with CLEAR is an important step in our mission to provide consumers with greater control over their healthcare data," said Steve Yaskin, CEO of Health Gorilla. "We believe that giving consumers easy and secure access to their medical records is key to improving healthcare outcomes and experiences. We are excited to partner with CLEAR to make Individual Access Services a reality for the people of Puerto Rico and beyond."
What is Individual Access Services?
IAS refers to a set of services that enable individuals to access, control, and manage their personal healthcare information. This includes tools for identity management, data management, and privacy protection. IAS allows patients to take a more active role in their own healthcare to make informed decisions about how their data is used and shared. It can also improve access to medical services, and enhance the quality of care patients receive.
Use Cases for Individual Access Services
IAS facilitates the sharing of patient health information among providers, hospitals and health systems, payers, public health, and other organizations. This has a direct impact on the coordination of care and reduces the likelihood of errors or omissions in treatment.
IAS can provide patients with access to their electronic medical records with information about their health history, including conditions, treatments, and test results. This can help patients keep track of their health information across multiple hospitals, clinics, and electronic health records (EHR) systems, and share it with healthcare providers when needed.
Practical use cases for IAS include:
- Home Health. IAS can make it easy for home health providers to easily review their patient’s comprehensive health records when the provider may have limited clinical context.
- Caregivers. With IAS, caregivers can retrieve their loved one's personal health records and share them across the care team, helping their providers make informed clinical decisions regardless of their EHR system.
- Research. IAS can enable patients to retrieve their complete health information and use it to establish eligibility for a particular clinical trial.
- Second opinions. IAS can enable patients to share their health history with providers who are not using the same EHR system, and may not have clinical context on that individual.
The Future of IAS under TEFCA and QHINs
TEFCA is a set of policies and technical specifications designed to promote secure and interoperable exchange of electronic health information (EHI) across the healthcare industry. It aims to create a single, national framework for health information exchange that is trusted by all participants. The TEFCA also designates QHINs, which are organizations that are qualified to participate in the national health information exchange network.
The introduction of TEFCA and the designation of QHINs will play a crucial role in the future of IAS in healthcare. By creating a national framework for health information exchange, patients will be able to access and manage their health data more easily and securely than ever before. Patients will also be able to share their data with healthcare providers and researchers on their own terms, with greater control over who has access to their data.
IAS will also help to promote patient engagement and participation in their own healthcare. With IAS, patients will be able to access their own health data, track their progress over time, and make more informed decisions about their care. This will ultimately lead to better health outcomes for patients, as well as a more efficient and effective healthcare system overall.
To learn more about Health Gorilla’s approval for onboarding as a QHIN, go to healthgorilla.com/qhin.
Get more information about our partnership with CLEAR by reading the official press release here.
