Doubts Linger Over New Medicare Effort to Spur Health-Data Sharing

Vanessa Burrows said Medicare’s new My HealthEData initiative could reduce the number of authorization forms patients need to sign under HIPAA to transfer their health data among providers. Clarifying what types of information about a discharged patient must be shared by a hospital with a patient’s follow-up provider may cut down on the forms patients must currently sign to transfer their records or request copies, Ms. Burrows added.