“This morning the US Department of Health and Human Services dropped its long-awaited final rules on interoperability, information blocking and patient access.”
“While the two final documents from the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) specify a number of new requirements laid out in the 21st Century Cures Act – including those to prevent information blocking and other anticompetitive behaviors among providers, health information exchanges and health IT developers – new policies outlining standardized APIs will have a particular impact on third-party health app developers.”
“Chief among these is the establishment of a Patient Access API outlined in CMS’ Interoperability and Patient Access rules.”
“Starting January 1, 2021, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, CHIP and plans on the federal Exchanges (that begin in 2021) will be required to support a standardized API (HL7 FHIR version 4.0.1) that allows patients to access claims and various information related to their medical encounter, such as cost or clinical information, through a third-party app of their choice. The API could also be used to integrate a health plan’s information to a patient’s EHR.”
“Another policy outlined in the final rule calls for the implementation of a Provider Directory API among the CMS-regulated payers. This API aims to provide third-party app developers with the means to connect patients with a broad selection of provider options, or to help clinicians find other providers for care coordination. This rule also has an implementation deadline of January 1, 2021…”
“Reactions to HHS’ draft rule proposal on the data sharing APIs have varied, ranging from supportive, to cautiously optimistic, to outright opposed. Among the most vocal critics was EHR vendor Epic CEO Judy Faulkner, whose leaked letter to chief executives at major hospitals and health systems warned of ‘unintended consequences’ of rising costs and privacy compromises if stronger safeguards weren’t in place. Faulkner later told Politico that Epic could sue HHS, depending on the content of the final rules.”
“On the other hand, a number of major names in tech that are dipping their toes into healthcare – including Apple, Google and Microsoft – have come out as proponents of the draft rules and highlighted their role in empowering individuals to manage their own care. A number of patient groups have taken similar stances, with some like the Society for Participatory Medicine calling out Epic and others for seeking to maintain a ‘paternalistic environment’ that assumes patients are unable to manage their own data.”
“At first glance, HHS appears to have stuck with the top-level proposals these groups have either applauded or opposed. It will take some time for stakeholders to comb through each rule’s hundreds of pages, however, so expect more finalized stances to emerge from both sides of the debate over the next few weeks…” Read the full article here.
Source: HHS’ final interoperability rules standardize APIs for patient health data access through apps – By Dave Muoio, March 9, 2020. MobiHealth News.
