Respond to a antitrust case what the company is dealing with from Particle Health, Epic Systems is asking Carequality’s interoperability network to share some more information about the dispute
The EHR vendor is calling on the Carequality interoperability network to release some details about a formal complaint Epic filed against the fledgling data analytics company earlier this year over certain patient data requests.
Particle Health, meanwhile, says it is confident the information would justify the antitrust claims filed in court.
For its part, Carequality says it cannot release the information until the dispute process is completed.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Epic is driven to lead in interoperability and defend patient privacy, the company explained in its latest response to Particle Health’s complaint of antitrust violations.
“At the direction of our customer council, we filed a dispute against Particle Health through the Carequality interoperability network because some Particle customers were using the network to obtain people’s medical records under false pretenses,” Epic said in a statement on Friday.
“For example, one company, Integritort, claimed to be treating patients when in fact it was collecting medical records for personal injury law firms to assess potential class action lawsuits.”
While Integritort previously denied the allegations, Particle dropped the company in March the tug of war over patient dataaccording to Politics.
“The Carequality Steering Committee monitored the dispute and released a resolution,” Epic said. “Particle publicly mischaracterized the resolution.”
Particle’s response was short and to the point.
“Carequality has requested that the resolution remain confidential,” a Particle spokesperson said Healthcare IT news on Friday. “If Carequality wants to release it now, we have no objection.”
In response to this confrontation between the two parties, Carequality reiterated that while it is “committed to the integrity and transparency” of its interoperability framework through an independent and unbiased dispute resolution process, the resolution is still subject to appeal.
“We will release more information once the process is complete,” the network said.
Particle, in turn, has targeted another data requester to illustrate Epic’s tactics in the lawsuit filed on September 23 in the Southern District of New York.
The company said Epic did not make patient data from the OneOncology network available to healthcare systems for more than 2,900 patients – “deliberately blocking important clinical information for physicians working on Epic’s EHR software,” said one blog statement.
In the complaint, Particle said that not only was it unable to help the specialty cancer treatment network send medical records to major academic medical centers, but when Epic suspended OneOncology, it caused negative consequences for those patients.
“Epic’s own customers were unable to onboard new cancer patients coming to them through OneOncology and were in urgent need of medical care,” Particle said.
The provider threatened to break its contract after being locked out by Epic, according to the lawsuit, and the EHR giant’s “stranglehold” on U.S. medical records has caused Particle’s revenues to drop dramatically.
We have reached out to OneOncology for comment on the inability to send patient health information and will update this story if there is a response from the provider network.
THE BIG TREND
Particle claims that Epic Systems is abuse its EPD monopoly to not only prevent its suppliers’ customers from obtaining complete patient medical records, but also to prevent the company from competing in the fledgling payment platform market.
In his official complaintParticle said the Carequality Steering Committee “fully agreed with Particle’s arguments, which expressly found that Particle did absolutely nothing wrong” and that Epic’s dispute “had no basis in fact.”
The company also said that the fact that it received a corrective action plan from the committee was “indicative of Epic’s strong influence over that body.”
“After Epic’s apparent abuse of power, we believe it is our responsibility to defend our mission, which drives innovation and ensures patients receive an ethical and transparent quality of care,” said Jason Prestinario, CEO of Particle. A message on social media about the lawsuit.
ON THE RECORD
“Particle should join Epic in asking Carequality to immediately release the resolution so that patients, healthcare organizations, other network participants, interoperability advocates, lawmakers and journalists can judge the facts for themselves,” Epic said in a statement.
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.