The Portal Paradox: What Rural Health Programs Must Know Before Investing in Interoperability
Rural health committees can learn from big systems’ expensive interoperability mistakes without inheriting problems they lack the resources to fix. Learn how to evaluate vendors and protect your investment.
Interoperability Isn’t a Technology Problem Anymore. It’s a Trust Problem.
For years, healthcare data sharing has been treated as a technology problem. But faster software and better standards haven’t solved the real barrier: trust. As information moves across hospitals, communities, and homes, the question isn’t whether we can share data, it’s whether we’ve built the trust systems needed to do it safely and well.
Who Will Make My Medical Decisions? Childfree Trust’s Care Planning Model
The launch of Childfree Trust signals a shift the advocacy and life care planning community has long been preparing for: planning isn’t just about naming someone, it’s about equipping them. This article examines the hidden labor behind POA and fiduciary roles, and why shared, living information is essential to confident, compassionate care.
Why ‘Just Give Me Your Login’ Puts Caregivers and Advocates at Risk
Many patient advocates and caregivers rely on shared logins or HIPAA authorizations to access medical records, often without realizing the legal and ethical risks. This article explains the critical difference between HIPAA Authorization and the HIPAA Right of Access, and what safer, patient-directed access really looks like.
Patient-Directed Interoperability: Delivering the Last Mile of Health Data Into Homes and Communities
Interoperability breaks where care actually happens: at the kitchen table and across community care teams. This article explores why patient-directed interoperability and FHIR are essential to rural health transformation and last-mile care coordination.
The Broken Bridge in Mental Health Care And the Pieces We Could Carry Across
When mental health records live in silos, patients are forced to retell their hardest stories over and over. This post explores why behavioral health data rarely moves with the person, and how patient-directed interoperability can protect privacy while finally connecting care.
The ROI of Patient Access APIs That No Health Plan Is Measuring…Yet
Health plans have spent millions building Patient Access APIs, but few understand what actually happens once the data reaches members and caregivers. Real ROI doesn’t come from FHIR servers or compliance checkboxes. It comes from the last mile of interoperability: when families can finally see, understand, and use their own data to prevent crises, close care gaps, and make better decisions at key moments of care.
Struggling to Get Medical Records? How to Recognize and Report Information Blocking
Delays, denials, and endless runarounds for medical records are far more common than people realize, and many of them violate federal information-blocking rules. Families, caregivers, clinicians, and advocates often don’t know they can file an information blocking claim. This post explains information blocking and introduces a GPT to help anyone step-by-step through drafting a claim!
When Hospitals Switch Systems and Records Go Missing: What Families and Care Teams Should Know
When health systems switch EHR platforms, the technical impact is only part of the story. For patients and caregivers, critical health records can vanish overnight. For clinical teams, it’s months of preparation and even longer rebuilding trust. As the White House pushes for stronger patient access and data ownership, this blog explores what really happens during an EHR transition and how Primary Record can serve as a failsafe for continuity, connection, and care that extends beyond the hospital walls.