What Consumer Education resources are available?

One requirement of the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access rule is to make available consumer education about sharing their health data with third-party apps.

One advantage of the adoption of FHIR by payers as the basis of the Patient Access APIs is that the APIs all act in a similar way. The types of data being displayed fall into 4 broad categories:

• Claims
• Clinical
• Drug Formulary
• Provider and Pharmacy Directories

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) have made a number of resources available on their web site. These public resources can be referenced to provide trusted education to health plan members.

• Resources and tools for Consumers

This includes:

• How to protect health information
• What consumers need to know about Electronic Health Records
• How to file a complaint if they believe their HIPAA /privacy rights are being violated
• Educational Videos

Consent and Authorization

When a consumer authorizes the sharing of their data they are essentially providing consent. For information about Consent there is are resources that cover Consent in relation to data interoperability:

• Patient Consent for Electronic Health Information Exchange and Interoperability
• Patient Consent

Meaningful Consent

Consent should not be a “check-the-box” exercise. Meaningful consent occurs when the patient makes an informed decision and the choice is properly recorded and maintained. Specifically, a meaningful consent decision has six aspects. The decision should be:

• made only after the patient has had sufficient time to review educational material,
• commensurate with circumstances for why health information is exchanged (i.e., the further the information-sharing strays from a reasonable patient expectation, the more time and education is required for the patient before he or she makes a decision),
• not used for discriminatory purposes or as condition for receiving medical treatment,
• commensurate with circumstances for why individually identifiable health information is exchanged,
• consistent with patient expectations, and
• revocable at any time.

Meaningful consent is the intersection of:

• Patient Education and Engagement
• Technology
• Law and Policy

NOTE: This page is also reproduced in the SAFHIR FAQ.

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