You may have received an email inviting you to access your personal health data via FHIR APIs from your healthcare provider's office.
The FHIR APIs are a modern way to securely interact with and retrieve your health information from your healthcare provider. Your provider is required to set up FHIR APIs in order to deliver your health information to you. Your provider's EHR(electronic health record) software, DrChrono, has partnered with ConnectEHR to facilitate this process. When your provider completes the clinical documentation for your appointment, it delivers the documentation to ConnectEHR. Once the documentation is delivered, you will receive an email to access it.
Keep in mind, that these APIs are not the only method to access your health information. You can always access your data through onpatient.com. For most patients, using OnPatient to access their personal health information is the easiest and best choice.
The difference between FHIR API and OnPatient is OnPatient accesses your medical records from a single healthcare organization and FHIR allows access to your medical records from multiple healthcare organizations.
For information on setting up FHIR, see our article for more information.
What is FHIR?
The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically. It is designed to facilitate the exchange of electronic health records (EHRs) and other healthcare data between different systems. The Interoperability and Patient Access final rule requires the use of FHIR by a variety of CMS-regulated payers, including Medicare Advantage organizations, state Medicaid programs, and qualified health plans in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace by 2021. Specifically, the rule requires FHIR APIs for Patient Access, Provider Directory and Payer-to-Payer exchange. The primary goal of the rule is to put patients first by giving them access to their health information when they need it most and in a way they can best use it. Patients and their healthcare providers will have the opportunity to be more informed, which can lead to better care and improved patient outcomes, while at the same time reducing burden.