Are actors (for example, health care providers) expected to release test results to patients through a patient portal or application programming interface (API) as soon as the results are available to the ordering clinician?

While the information blocking regulations do not require actors to proactively make electronic health information (EHI) available, once a request to access, exchange or use EHI is made actors must timely respond to the request (for example, from a patient for their test results). Delays or other unnecessary impediments could implicate the information blocking provisions.

In practice, this could mean a patient would be able to access EHI such as test results in parallel to the availability of the test results to the ordering clinician.

Please review the other questions under this heading for more information.