Interoperability and information blocking in health care

Administration releases revised final rules on interoperability with compliance deadlines beginning in 2021 | May 5, 2020

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on May 1, 2020, published revised final rules on interoperability and information blocking after initially releasing final rules on March 9, 2020. Notably, the final rules codify proposals that put the sharing of health information squarely in the hands of individuals, reinforcing a more consumer-centric approach to health care. As further evidence of this view, the agencies emphasize that a number of provisions of the final rules are intended to support individuals’ movement among different payers and providers.

In the revised final rules, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) formally updated the compliance deadline for the Medicare conditions of participation for hospitals, while accompanying guidance provided by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) outlined how the agencies would exercise enforcement discretion beyond the compliance deadlines adopted in the final rules.

Under the revised final rules, the deadline for hospitals to send automated electronic notifications is pushed back an additional six months to May 1, 2021 (12 months after publication in the Federal Register, rather than six months after publication in the Federal Register).

Learn more about the revised final rules on interoperability and information blocking, including key details on applicability, scope of data, and compliance deadlines by reading our full article.

Exchanging health information in a digital world: HHS issues final rules on interoperability and information blocking | March 9, 2020

On March 9, 2020, the HHS along with the ONC released its final rule aimed at promoting interoperability and implementing the "information blocking" prohibition of the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016. On the same day, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) also issued its final rule aimed at placing requirements on CMS-regulated payors and agencies to implement application programming interfaces (APIs) to a allow for health care information to be more easily accessible by patients and shared with health care providers and other payors.

In light of the potential confluence of compliance deadlines on January 1, 2021, it will be critically important for health care stakeholders to evaluate interoperability, information blocking, and price transparency efforts cohesively as they prepare for the strategic, competitive, clinical, and technology opportunities and challenges that the initiatives present.

HHS release proposed rules on interoperability and information blocking | February 11, 2019

On February 11, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released proposed rules aimed at driving the US health care system toward greater interoperability of EHRs.

Taken together with provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, the new proposed rules from CMS and ONC continue the push to make health care information more accessible to patients and providers as part of a larger effort toward value-based health care.