Do you wish you could have access to all your health information, not just what your physician chooses to show you? Currently, only patients in a few states can access their lab results. Due to certain HIPAA (the federal medical privacy law) rules, this is not possible in most parts of the country.
No big deal, right? Well, think about what you’re missing. Having access to your lab results will encourage the development of of emerging health care technologies that rely on you having this information. It will help you pass on your results and speed up certain processes. Patients having access to lab results can decrease health care costs, allowing them to spot errors and omissions and eliminating the need for wasting time on unnecessary procedures and improving outcomes. And, last but not least, it’s simply important to make the public more aware and more responsible for individual health.
Tim O’Reilly and many others are trying to make these advantages a reality by supporting a federal rule to expand the rights of patients to access lab test results. We encourage you to read this letter. If you agree, then visit here to sign it. The final deadline for signing is October 23rd!