A Rant About Siloed Medicine: Why “Connected” Healthcare Is Still a Big Joke After 20+ Years of Federal Government Meddling
My first online rant about governmental ineptitude in the medical records field.
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So, let me get this out of the way up front: this is a rant, and it’s a justified one, and next to never rant. Anyone who thinks American healthcare technology is modern and efficient has probably never tried to get two doctors to share your blood test results or even medical records. I just left a routine appointment with my primary care provider and walked out quite irritated. Here’s why.
This afternoon, my PCP asked me for updates from the neurologists and psychiatrist I see for my 2016 head injury. No problem—I keep pretty good track of my care recently, and one neurologist had actually run a comprehensive blood panel a couple months ago, which turned up a significant B12 deficiency. Based on that, I’m now did daily B12 injections and will be taking B12 supplements going forward.
My PCP is thorough and wants to see those lab results herself, which makes sense—she should be tracking all my data, not just what she orders directly. I told her, “You should have access to my Quest Diagnostics patient account, since you’re my PCP.”
That’s when I got the punchline: she says that under HIPAA, she’s not allowed to see results she didn’t personally order. She can only see labs from her own orders, not those from my neurologist or anyone else. If I want her to have them, I have to go to my Quest portal, download the PDFs, and email them to her—like it’s 2003 and we’re swapping AOL attachments.
This is not a fringe case. I used to run a mid-sized medical services company; I know enough about HIPAA and the endless government “Meaningful Use” mandates to know that, in theory, all of this was supposed to be fixed years ago. The whole pitch behind Meaningful Use and EHRs was to make it possible for any doctor involved in your care to access your full health picture—labs, imaging, prescriptions, the whole deal. Supposedly, if you landed in an ER or switched providers, all your records would be right there. Portability and free access were the calls to action from Washington, DC.
Here’s the reality: we’ve spent billions of dollars to digitize health records, but your care is still fragmented and siloed. There’s no simple way for you to grant “blanket” access to your other providers, even within the same network, never mind across different organizations. Even when it’s the same lab company—like Quest Diagnostics—the firewall is there. The “solution” is for patients to be their own data mule, manually downloading and emailing files between doctors.
It’s absurd. We’ve achieved “compliance” but sacrificed common sense. And it means your care is still subject to delays, gaps, and missed details—sometimes at real cost to your health.
This is the kind of bureaucratic failure that never makes headlines but screws up people’s lives every day. If government is going to dictate how health information is stored and shared, the least it could do is make it possible for you—the patient—to decide who gets to see your records, regardless of which provider ordered them. Instead, we’re still trapped by outdated interpretations of HIPAA and a patchwork of systems that make data less accessible, not more.
Until someone fixes this at the policy level, don’t believe anyone who tells you American healthcare is “digitally connected.” It isn’t. And that, as a patient, should make you mad too.
My Call to Action for Us All:
So, here’s my message to anyone in charge of healthcare policy, hospital administration, or health IT: stop patting yourselves on the back for digitizing medical records when the core problem—information actually flowing between doctors—still isn’t solved. Patients should have the legal right and the practical ability to grant access to all of their records to any provider involved in their care, no matter who ordered the test or which system they use. It’s their info!
If you’re a patient, don’t just accept this as normal. Ask every provider why they can’t see the full picture. Demand answers. And when you get the usual legalese or “that’s just how the system works,” push back and make it clear that this is unacceptable. Nobody should be forced to be their own medical courier in 2025.
It’s time for lawmakers and regulators to stop hiding behind HIPAA as an excuse for bureaucratic paralysis. Either fix the law or get out of the way and let patients take control of their own health data. Because until that happens, all the talk about “patient-centered care” and “digital transformation” is just marketing. And people’s health is on the line while you drag your feet. Fix it, dammit.
Now, please comment, SUBSCRIBE, and share this rant! It’s a good one and we need things to change pronto.