The 21st Century Cures Act & Medical Results

The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), signed into law on December 13, 2016, is designed to help accelerate medical product development and bring new innovations and advances to patients who need them faster and more efficiently.

Federal regulations implementing the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 were recently finalized and require the immediate release of most types of medical information and documentation held within a patient’s medical record. While the release requirement has been delayed nationally, large healthcare systems have begun the release of information via MyChart to ensure compliance with this law effective Nov. 2, 2020.

This means the results from all laboratory, radiology, and pathology reports, as well as most progress and other notes, are available to you, the patient, via MyChart immediately. It is important to be aware of this as your test results and other information will now be available to you potentially prior to your doctor’s review.

Your doctor is the best person to review and share updates on your test results, which can take time. It is best to wait until you can talk with your doctor about your results. As the patient, if you do not want to see your results until your doctor has reviewed them with you, please tell your doctor when he or she orders your test(s).

At St. James, we have always helped our patients get reports from their health records. This is just a new and faster way for you to receive those results. We just want everyone to be aware of the new system and that you can still ask your doctor to delay the release of the results until they have reviewed them.