HIT Policy Committee Finds Barriers with Technology and Cost
The HIT Policy Committee reports among other things:
“According to experts, labs are required to pay for the exchange of data, so they build connections with larger providers first – leaving small physician practices on their own, since there aren’t enough lab results to justify the interface.”
This committee exposed a common problem – many EHR companies do not charge the practice/provider for the lab interface but do charge the lab. As a result, the lab often will not pay for the interface if the practice is small or they don’t believe the practice will generate enough revenue for the lab company.
While there remain some challenges with lab results standardization, they are largely standardized, especially within the same lab company. For the EHR vendor once the lab interface with the ab is written, it can be re-used for other practices. Therefore, it really doesn’t make any sense for EHR companies to charge large fees for lab results interfaces.
In fact, Sevocity doesn’t believe in charging for any standard HL7 interfaces, including lab results.
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C Huddle, VP, Market Development