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Particle Health said Monday that the “vast majority” of its customers still receive records from medical software giant Epic Systems despite an ongoing dispute between the two companies over data-sharing practices.
Epic's software supports more than 300 million patient records, and Particle acts as an intermediary that helps healthcare organizations access the data they need. Both companies belong to an interoperability network called Carequality, which facilitates the exchange of patient information on a large scale.
On March 21, Epic filed a formal dispute with Carequality citing concerns that Particle and its participating organizations “may be inaccurately representing the purpose associated with its record retrievals.” To join the Carequality Network, organizations must be approved and meet the “permitted purposes,” which generally have to do with treatment, for sharing patient records.
Patient data is protected by a federal law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which requires patient consent or knowledge for third-party access.
Particle said in a statement Monday that while Epic “indiscriminately stopped responding” to data requests from some of its customers due to the dispute, most customers were not affected. The company said it has been pressuring Epic to restore connection to affected customers and many are already back to normal.
“While there is an ongoing dispute between Epic and Particle Health, related to three specific customers, the vast majority of Particle Health customers affected by Epic's actions were in no way related to this dispute,” the company said in the notice.
Particle CEO Jason Prestinario said in the statement that the company will address the dispute with Epic through official procedural channels.
Epic did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
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