Leveling the Playing Field in Health Information Sharing: Complying With the 21st Century Cures Act

The ONC Final Rule lays out regulations to prevent information blocking practices by healthcare providers, health IT developers, health information exchanges (HIEs), and health information networks. The CMS Final Rule lays out similar expectations for healthcare payers like Medicaid Managed Health Plans and CHIP plans.

For ambulatory care providers, Final Rule compliance may seem like an overwhelming process and one that may require you to hire lawyers or compliance consultants to assist with. Especially since, at this time, there are no real defined processes, so it may seem difficult to ensure true compliance.

To ensure practices are fully prepared once enforcement rules are in place now is the time to focus on establishing a process for evaluating information requests and ensuring staff members are knowledgeable about the exceptions.