I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4613 
To allow the use of claims, eligibility, and payment data to produce reports, 
analyses, and presentations to benefit Medicare, and other similar health 
insurance programs, entities, researchers, and health care providers, to 
help develop cost saving approaches, standards, and reference materials 
and to support medical care and improved payment models. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 11, 2017 
Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS (for herself, Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
HUDSON, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. LONG, Mr. BISHOP of Michigan, Mr. 
PAULSEN, and Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in 
addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To allow the use of claims, eligibility, and payment data 
to produce reports, analyses, and presentations to benefit 
Medicare, and other similar health insurance programs, 
entities, researchers, and health care providers, to help 
develop cost saving approaches, standards, and reference 
materials and to support medical care and improved pay-
ment models. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring Patient Ac-
cess to Healthcare Records Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO DATA, VIA RESEARCH 
AND USER FRIENDLY PRESENTATIONS AND 
APPLICATIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of the Health Informa-
tion Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (42 
U.S.C. 17921 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘PART 
3—HEALTH 
CARE 
CLEARINGHOUSES; 
DATA PROCESSING TO EMPOWER PATIENTS 
AND IMPROVE THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM 
‘‘SEC. 13451. MODERNIZING THE ROLE OF CLEARING-
HOUSES IN HEALTH CARE. 
‘‘(a) EFFORTS
TO
PROMOTE
ACCESS
TO
AND 
LEVERAGING OF HEALTH INFORMATION.— 
‘‘(1) 
IN
GENERAL.—The 
Secretary 
shall, 
through the updating of existing policies and devel-
opment of policies that support dynamic technology 
solutions, promote patient access to information re-
lated to their care, including real world outcomes 
and economic data (including claims, eligibility, and 
payment data), in a manner that would ensure that 
such information is available in a form convenient 
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for the patient, in a reasonable manner, and without 
burdening the health care provider involved. 
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENT.—Activities carried out 
under paragraph (1) shall include the development 
of policies to enable covered entities with access to 
health information to— 
‘‘(A) provide patient access to information 
related to their care, including real world out-
comes and economic data; 
‘‘(B) develop, in accordance with HIPAA- 
related provisions (as defined in subsection (j)), 
patient engagement tools, reports, analyses, and 
presentations based on population health, epide-
miological, and health services outcomes data, 
that may demonstrate a fiscal or treatment ben-
efit to patients and health plan enrollees; and 
‘‘(C) promote transparency regarding the 
use and disclosure of health information by 
health care clearinghouses in accordance with 
the notice provisions of subsection (e). 
‘‘(b) TREATMENT AS COVERED ENTITY FOR SPECI-
FIED FUNCTIONS.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—With respect to the use 
and disclosure of protected health information, the 
Secretary shall— 
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‘‘(A) not consider health care clearing-
houses that engage in the functions described in 
paragraph (3) to be business associates, includ-
ing subcontractor business associates, under 
HIPAA-related provisions (as defined in sub-
section (j)(3)) regardless of the role of such 
clearinghouses in collecting or receiving the in-
formation; and 
‘‘(B) consider such clearinghouses to be 
covered entities under such provisions of law for 
all purposes. 
Such clearinghouses shall not be considered business 
associates, or subcontractor business associates, for 
translation of data into and out of standard format, 
analytic, cloud computing, or any other purpose. 
‘‘(2) DATA ACCURACY AND SECURITY REQUIRE-
MENT.—In order to use health data as authorized by 
this section, a clearinghouse or other covered entity 
engaging in activities authorized under this section 
shall be certified to have the necessary expertise and 
technical infrastructure to ensure the accuracy and 
security of such claims, eligibility, and payment data 
through receipt of an accreditation by the Electronic 
Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission, or 
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