Home Health Care HHS releases final rules on interoperability

HHS releases final rules on interoperability

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Two new rules released by the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday should make it easier for patients to access and share their information. The rules, developed by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, require public and private entities to securely share health information with patients, and penalize those who fail to do so.

They also establish common standards and APIs that would allow patients to access their health record from third-party apps, with the goal of making it easier for patients to carry their record between providers. That requirement would go into effect in 2022.

The much-anticipated rules had drummed up a wide group of supporters, including patient-advocacy groups and several big-name tech firms, including Google, Amazon and IBM. But they had also stirred up some controversy, particularly with Epic and privacy groups raising concerns about the long-term privacy implications of letting patients share their data with third-party apps.

Dr. Don Rucker, national coordinator for health information technology, said the new rules would allow patients to access healthcare data in the same way they access their finances, travel, and other components that have been digitized.

“This requires using modern computing standards and APIs that give patients access to their health information and give them the ability to use the tools they want to shop for and coordinate their own care on their smartphones,” Rucker said in a news release. “A core part of the rule is patients’ control of their electronic health information which will drive a growing patient-facing healthcare IT economy, and allow apps to provide patient-specific price and product transparency.”

The final rule establishes penalties for “information blocking,” or knowingly interfering with the exchange of health information. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) specified eight exemptions to that rule, and the penalties for providers who do not follow it.

It also imposes new requirements for EHR vendors as part of the certification process, by ensuring the system is secure, usable for providers, and allows physicians to share critical information.  For example, many EHR contracts contain provisions that prevent users from sharing information related to the record system, such as screen shots or video, which could be critical in a case, HHS stated in a news release. Those requirements will go into place six months after the final rule is published.

A timeline of the ONC’s information blocking final rule.

Photo credit: from2015, Getty Images

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