New EHR Business Model
In a report from HealthcareIT News, titled, "Vendor to offer web-based EHRs to docs in exchange for data", a company called Practice Fusion is announcing an new business model for community physicians. It is a hosted model for EHRs where the company will discount their services and then sell "de-identified data to insurance groups, clinical researchers and
pharmaceutical companies." Can this business model work? Small practices might welcome a lower cost solution, however, they and their patients might be concerned about whether the data is fully deidentified and their privacy protected. Will the host vendor be covered by HIPAA?
Technorati: EMRs
Technorati: EMRs
Hello John,
I noticed you posting and wanted to comment. I can assure you, all of the physicians using our system, and all of the patients stored in our systems that and data shared and sold is completely de-identified per HIPAA compliance. In addition, Practice Fusion only sells its data for clinical research, and will absolutely never sell it to a third-party who has any potential interest in re-identifying the data. Our integrity and reputation are of the utmost importance to us - if we ever compromise these, our business model will fail and we will be out of business.
One additional comment is that almost all of patient claims in the US today are routed through a clearinghouse when they are submitted to insurance payers. It is a well-known fact that the largest clearinghouse in the country, Emdeon (formerly WebMD), and most others sell their data to third parties. What this means is that the majority of all patient's data in the country has been shared with a third party.
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