The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, a high-level HHS advisory group, approved a policy letter recommending that the Nationwide Health Information Network allow patients to withhold or limit certain parts of their electronic health records, Government Health IT reports.
The letter will be sent to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and could affect NHIN development decisions.
The approved letter was the 17th draft, and the committee spent 15 months composing and refining the letter.
Marc Overhage, president and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, was the lone committee member to vote against approving the letter. "We're making recommendations in this document that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement," he said, adding that the money would be better spent on other health IT initiatives.
Overhage also questioned whether patients have the right to control information about them that is maintained by health providers.
However, other committee members said individuals should be able to withhold information, such as mental health, substance abuse or reproductive health information. They said that patients might opt-out of the network entirely if they do not have that ability.
Harry Reynolds, vice president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and a member of the committee, said that while there are many unknowns about the NHIN, providing patients with some control over their EHRs could help direct the network's development (Ferris, Government Health IT, 2/20).