Patients want information shared openly but at no cost

Nearly 75 percent of American adults surveyed believe it is very important that their critical health information should be easily shared between physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers and most (87 percent) are against any associated fees, according to a survey released by the Society of Participatory Medicine and conducted by ORC International.

Nearly 20 percent of those surveyed felt that they or a family member experienced a problem receiving medical care because their health records could not be shared between different healthcare providers.

“What this survey points out is that when critical health information can’t be shared across medical practices and hospitals, patients are put at risk,” said Daniel Z. Sands, MD, co-founder and co-chair of the Society of Participatory Medicine, in a release.

Several independent sources have noted that doctors are forced to pay between $5,000 to $50,000 to set up connections allowing them to transmit information to blood and pathology laboratories, health information exchanges or governments. Sometimes additional fees are charged each time a doctor sends or receives data.

“We have the technology," Sands said. "What we need is for healthcare providers and systems developers to put patient interests ahead of business needs. None of them would exist were it not for the patients.”