What is an Independent Health Record Trust?

There is much confusion over the definition of an Independent Health Record Trust. First, HR 2991 does not define trusts as data banks, either centralized or federated. The bill leaves implementation of a trust to various solutions. Yet, you'll find interpretations of the bill stating, incorrectly, that it establishes one or multiple data banks.

The bill's most technical wording is "nationwide health information technology network" and in the rest of the document establishes that such a network would consist of independent trusts.

In information technology, a Trust defines a secure relationship. The bill adds that the Trust is charged with fiduciary responsibility. In the context of HR 2991, a viable and practical implementation of a Trust could utilize a federated security model to guard indices to health data contained in medical records, profiles, etc. There is no need to start gathering up all the data. That would be difficult, to say the least.