21st Century Patient Access Law Goes Into Effect

April 5 is the official start date of a U.S. law requiring health care organizations to provide patients with free, full, and immediate electronic access to their doctor’s clinical notes as well as test results and reports from pathology and imaging.
The mandate, called “open notes” by many, is part of the 21st Century Cures Act, a wide-ranging piece of federal health care legislation. The previous deadline of Nov. 2, 2020, for enacting open notes was extended last year because of the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizations must provide access via patient portals to the following types of notes: consultations, discharge summaries, histories, physical examination findings, imaging narratives, laboratory and pathology report narratives, and procedure and progress notes. Noncompliant organizations will eventually be subject to fines from the Department of Health & Human Services for “information blocking.”

Make sure your HIPAA program is up to date. This includes training for you and your staff.
If you do not yet have our 2021 version of HIPAA for the Chiropractic Profession you can still order it – now on sale with promo code ICS19, including free shipping!

And, with every order of HIPAA for the Chiropractic Profession through April 5th, we will include the latest summary on the new 21st Century Cures Act, including information on what your office needs to do to provide electronic records access to patients. ... See MoreSee Less