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The law was enacted when the internet was in its infancy and healthcare was still paper-based.

Moscovitch pointed at the information blocking regulations that are a part of the 21st Century Cures Act to help this issue. If certain demographic information is not reported, fines of up to $1 million could occur.The Biden administration could use this authority to require that health care providers include complete demographic data, such as contact information, when ordering tests from labs, Moscovitch recommended. Thats critical because labs cannot share complete data with public health authorities if they have not received it in the first place.

Even so, studies have found that many patients dont access their records. Thats a mistake because they serve as a blueprint for treatment and may contain vital, and sometimes ignored, nuggets that can lead to the correct diagnosis or treatment.

Declining trust in health care stems partly from inherent contradictions at the heart of the US medical system. There are no easy solutions and progress will require difficult choices and sustained effort. But it starts with recognizing that despite technological, economic, and political changes, trust in health care fundamentally begins where it always has: with healing relationships between patients and physicians.

Dropping the requirement for healthcare entities to obtain and retain for six years patients’ signed acknowledgements of notices of privacy practices;Reducing the time from 30 days to 15 days for covered entities to fulfill patient requests for receiving copies of their health information;Allowing more flexibility to healthcare providers in making decisions to share patient information - such as about opioid abuse or COVID-19 treatment - with family members in situations involving “serious and foreseeable” threats, rather than the current “serious and imminent” threat standard.

Epic Systems has announced it facilitated over 221 million patient data exchanges through its Care Everywhere platform in October, a roughly 40 percent increase from the same time last year.As the country is currently in the midst of what some experts call the second wave of COVID-19, patient data exchange continues to be vital in healthcare. This is a record number of exchanges for the EHR vendor, Epic said, and that level of performance will be necessary as the industry stares down a likely influx of COVID-19 cases.

It’s not just caregivers and clinicians who have had to master the new modality for delivering care; healthcare consumers and their extended network of family and friends now have to adapt to telehealth as a new normal in accessing and receiving care.The most mature health systems recognize the importance of context and design their telehealth programs accordingly. Telehealth looks different for millennials and retirees, rural and urban inner-city populations, and population groups with fundamentally different healthcare needs.Many of us have gotten used to the idea that telehealth is just a new way to meet the doctor, only now it is through a video visit. But telehealth is much more. It encompasses various services and multiple modalities for delivering services involving multiple technology platforms and interfaces.

The policy states that the AMA:Continue to advocate for the widespread adoption of telehealth services in the practice of medicine for physicians and physician-led teams after the pandemic;Advocate that the federal and state governments and agencies and the payer industry adopt clear and uniform laws, rules, regulations, and policies relating to telehealth services that provide equitable coverage that allows patients to access telehealth services wherever they are located (and) provide for the use of accessible devices and technologies, with appropriate privacy and security protections, for connecting physicians and patients;Advocate for equitable access to telehealth services, especially for at-risk and under-resourced patient populations and communities, including but not limited to supporting increased funding and planning for telehealth infrastructure such as broadband and internet-connected devices for both physician practices and patients; andSupport the use of telehealth to reduce health disparities and promote access to health care.