“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in health IT systems that support capturing and using population data,” ONC wrote in the report (PDF). “The challenges exposed during the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic pinpointed the importance of health IT to monitor population health regarding public health surveillance of testing, diagnosis and vaccine distribution.”

The barriers highlighted by ONC include:

• ONC and HHS’ lack of authority under the Cures Act to tell entities whether their specific instances constitute information blocking. Subsequently, ONC wrote that it is unable to disseminate such advisory requests and responses to the rest of the industry “so that other entities could review them and apply the analysis to consider whether their own practices might be assessed if subject to HHS review.”…
• Few incentives for health IT and data exchange adoption for certain portions of the care continuum. HHS’ authorization to incentivize providers to adopt certified EHRs doesn’t extend to certain types of behavioral health professionals, long-term and post-acute care, hospice and home and community-based providers. Particularly in regard to interoperability, gaps in adoption are hamstringing care transitions from hospitals to other settings… Read the full article here.