Dive Brief:
- HHS has issued a final rule amending the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 which allows laboratories to give a patient, or their personal representative, access to their laboratory results upon request.
- Patients will still be able to get lab results from their doctors, but now have the option to get them directly from the lab, securely.
- CMS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office for Civil Rights jointly issued the final rule.
Dive Insight:
Given the state of healthcare today, it makes great sense to offer patients one more means of transparently accessing their healthcare data. Admittedly, it's likely that they'll turn to their doctors with the information almost as soon as they get it, but giving them the option to see it first puts them in greater control of their health. This is a positive direction for the agencies involved.