Particle Health, a health data intermediary, announced on Monday that the majority of its customers continue to receive records from medical software giant Epic Systems, despite an ongoing disagreement over data-sharing practices.
Epic Systems’ Role in Patient Records
Epic Systems’ software supports over 300 million patient records. Particle Health acts as a conduit, assisting healthcare organizations in accessing the necessary data. Both companies are part of an interoperability network known as Carequality, which enables large-scale patient information exchange.
The Dispute with Carequality
On March 21, Epic Systems lodged a formal dispute with Carequality. The software giant expressed concerns that Particle Health and its participant organizations might be misrepresenting the purpose of their record retrievals. To join the Carequality network, organizations must comply with “Permitted Purposes,” which typically relate to treatment, for the exchange of patient records.
Patient data is safeguarded by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which mandates patient consent or knowledge for third-party access.
Particle Health’s Response
Particle Health stated on Monday that while Epic Systems ”indiscriminately stopped responding” to data requests from some of its customers due to the dispute, most clients were not affected. The company has been urging Epic to restore connection to impacted customers, and many have already returned to normal.
“While there is an ongoing dispute between Epic and Particle Health, related to three specific customers, the significant majority of Particle Health customers impacted by Epic’s actions were not in any way related to this dispute,” the company said in the release.
Epic Systems’ Statement
In a statement to CNBC on Monday, Epic said it discovered that some Particle customers were accessing patient medical records by ”falsely claiming to be treating them as patients.” Epic said that after a review, its customers asked the company to prevent “a small number” of groups from using Particle’s Carequality connection to access their data.
“This violates the guidelines and spirit of Carequality, which was established to advance interoperability to improve treatment for patients,” Epic said in the statement.
Epic said its customers have asked Particle to provide more information about how these organizations are using medical records before it restores access.
Particle Health’s Future Plans
Particle CEO Jason Prestinario said in his company’s release that the startup will address the dispute with Epic through official procedural channels.
