1. United States
2. Tenn.
3. Letter

In 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act caused some unintended consequences that need to be addressed with new legislation. I’m talking about the issue of electronic records now being posted to patient portals before the doctor has had a chance to review the results. Every day in this country, patients are finding out they have a terminal disease from a notification on their phone that says “you have new information to review.” They click and discover that they have something fatal, like pancreatic cancer. They are then left to turn to Google to try and figure out what “stage 4” and “carcinoma” mean. It might be a weekend and there’s no one to call to answer questions. Can you imagine getting a random text that just says “you’re going to die soon?” It’s pretty much the same thing, and it absolutely violates the physician oath to do no harm. The doctors and hospitals say they are only following the federal law and can’t do anything to change it. That is nonsense. This is a FIXABLE problem. Please use the power of your office to enact new legislation so patients don’t have to suffer any more than they already do.