Epic calls on Particle Health to release dispute resolution

Epic Systems has called on health data company Particle Health to approve the release of a patient privacy dispute resolution after Particle Health filed an antitrust lawsuit earlier this week against the EHR giant.

The lawsuit alleges that Epic is using its dominance in the EHR market to bar competition in the payer platform market. This emerging market aims to transform paper- and fax-based processes into scalable systems for analyzing health records and predicting patient risk.

Particle Health alleges that Epic has inappropriately hampered safe and secure HIE, which impacted patient care across Particle Health customers.

However, Epic's press release states that Particle Health customers had used the network to use patient EHR data under false pretenses.

"For example, a business, Integritort, claimed to be treating patients when in fact it was gathering medical records for personal injury law firms to review for potential class action lawsuits," Epic officials wrote in the press release.

At the direction of its customer governing council, Epic filed a dispute against Particle Health through the Carequality interoperability network.

While Carequality's Steering Committee has issued its resolution, Particle has "publicly mischaracterized the resolution," Epic officials said.

"Particle should join Epic in asking Carequality to release the resolution immediately so that patients, healthcare organizations, other network participants, interoperability advocates, lawmakers and journalists can evaluate the facts for themselves," the press release underscored.

Hannah Nelson has been covering news related to health information technology and health data interoperability since 2020.