On July 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new initiative requiring major EHR vendors to connect directly to national data-sharing networks. The American Medical Association (AMA) called the move “long overdue,” noting that for the first time, physicians will get real-time, full patient records—not just a handful of data fields.
Epic, Amazon, Oracle Health, eClinicalWorks and TruBridge are among the vendors pledging to comply. For doctors and patients, this means faster access to clinical notes, images, and medication lists, plus encounter notifications and easier patient logins. It’s a big step toward making records less fragmented. Or is it?
Here’s the truth: We’ve been waiting 20 years for EHR vendors to share data across systems. But their approach is just too complicated. It’s time we take a simple approach that works today. Neither patients nor providers can afford to wait any longer for the promise of interoperability to trickle down.
The Problem With Waiting on EHRs
Even with CMS backing, vendor initiatives move too slowly. Integrations break. Standards shift. Smaller practices lag behind. Meanwhile:
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Patients still bounce between portals.
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Doctors still repeat tests.
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Families still carry paper files to each appointment.
Healthcare remains fragmented, frustrating, and expensive. Physicians are burned out by the constant hunting, scrolling, and clicking for records that are not available in their EHR.
How MedKaz Changes the Game
MedKaz provides interoperability today – by shifting access to patient records from vendor systems to patients. Instead of waiting for EHR vendors to share information, patients carry all their medical records from every provider on a secure, portable device called a MedKaz. They can instantly search its contents and access any record from any provider, at the point-of-care, without the usual delays or loopholes.
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Complete record in one place: Clinical notes, images, labs, meds.
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Instant access at the point of care and easy-to-manage: No chasing portals, no waiting on networks.
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Universal compatibility: Works with every provider, regardless of which EHR system they use.
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Patient-owned and secure: HIPAA-compliant, encrypted, portable.
With MedKaz, interoperability isn’t a distant policy goal—it’s reality, in the hands of every patient.
Why This Matters
CMS is right: The AMA is right. The AMA said the initiative was “long overdue.” Both agree that interoperability saves money and lives by enabling physicians to coordinate care, avoid medical errors and unnecessary visits, tests and procedures, and reduces delays. But while we continue to wait for the “big EHRs” to cooperate and provide interoperability, MedKaz takes a different approach and solves the problem today. It puts the solution directly in the hands of patients and physicians.
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For physicians: Less burnout, less time chasing records.
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For patients: Better coordinated care and fewer gaps.
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For the system: Lower costs and safer outcomes.
Conclusion
The CMS initiative is a welcome push. But providers have been knocking on this door for 20 years, with no real results. The future of healthcare data needn’t be locked inside competing EHRs. It can and should be owned by patients, available on demand, and universally accessible today! That’s what MedKaz provides and why it is more than a product. It’s the practical answer to interoperability and will change healthcare forever.
