KEY POINTS- About 60 health systems are siding with Epic CEO Judy Faulkner, who is urging hospitals and clinics to take a stand against the Department of Health and Human Services rules designed to make it easier to share medical records data with patients and apps.
- Technology companies like Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft have taken the opposite stance.
- CNBC obtained a copy of the letter, which explains their reasoning.
Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner recently urged some of the largest health systems in the country to sign a letter opposing proposed rules designed to make it easier for patients to obtain their medical information and share it with apps.
About 60 of these health systems have signed it.
The letter, which was obtained by CNBC, was addressed to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and opposed proposed rules designed to help medical information flow more easily between health systems and patients. The rules also aim to make clinical data accessible through application programming interfaces (APIs).
Epic, which is privately held, sells its electronic medical record software to hospitals across the country and is one of the largest health-technology companies in the U.S. An Epic installation is a major undertaking and can cost upwards of $1 billion for a major health system to implement.
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