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Now providers must also deliver it in a more patient-friendly platform.If they do not, another provider in-person or virtual is ready to step in and fill the void, he added.

US healthcare organisations may choose to comply with the rule in a way that helps ensure patients know about their enhanced right to access and use their health information for empowerment and engagement, or they may simply keep quiet about it and hope patients dont notice their new rights. Choosing to keep quiet would be a mistake. Full sharing and transparency of personal health information should strengthen patient-clinician communication, raise health literacy, promote self-management, enhance teamwork, and increase trust. Patients voices must now be put at the centre of discussions and debates about information and data sharing in healthcare to ensure that all reap the benefits of the digital age.

Tripathi and Posnack explained that for the next 18 months, the information that can’t be “blocked” is limited to the data elements represented in the United States Core Data for Interoperability.“This initial 18-month period and limited scope gives the regulated community time to grow more experienced with the information blocking regulation, including when and how to meet an ‘exception,’ before the full scope of the regulations EHI definition comes into effect,” they wrote.

Simplyput: APIs are about taking data, making it liquid, and sharing it to deliver information into the hands of the right person to make decisions. Theres no way to do that without using APIs, which makes them mission critical, saidGautam Shah,VicePresident,Platform and Marketplace,Change Healthcare. Change Healthcare, in fact, released new research that found 9 in 10 executives (CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and others) consider APIs to be mission-critical to their business but only 24 percent use them at scale.

On April 5, a new federal rule turned OpenNotes goal into the law of the land.Now, virtually every US medical practice and health system must make all information in electronic health recordswith a few exceptionseasily accessible to patients at no charge. The mandate, part of the 20th Century Cures Act enacted in 2016, originally was supposed to go into effect November 2, but the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the last minute extended the compliance deadline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The US Core Data for Interoperability lists 8 types of clinical information that must be shared: consultation, discharge summary, procedure, and progress notes; imaging, laboratory report, and pathology report narratives; and history and physical. The rule doesnt apply to psychotherapy notes kept separate from the patients health record or notes compiled in reasonable anticipation of use in a civil or criminal court case or an administrative proceeding. In addition, the mandate permits withholding information if doing so will substantially reduce the risk of harm to a patient or another individual, such as in a domestic abuse situation.

ONC Leader Gives Health IT Vision ONCs newly appointednationalcoordinatorMickyTripathiintroduced the2021ONCAnnual Meetingby sharinghis vision for the future of health IT strategy and policythroughout the healthcare system. He talked aboutthe agencysrole inresponding to the COVID-19pandemic,striving forhealth equitythrough the use of health IT(he calls it equitybydesign), advancing interoperabilityof health information, and reducing the burdenof health IT on clinicians.

When finalizing the proposed version, ONC should ensure the USCDI includes data needed for public health and health equity, which can help public health agencies fight the current pandemicand be better prepared for future crises, Talkington wrote in a letter to ONC.According to Pew, over 40 percent of lab results are missing important patient data.To strengthen USCDI, Pew recommended ONC:Require the use of US Postal Service (USPS) standard to boost patient matchingInclude key data elements, such as travel history, employment, and death dateAccelerate social determinants of health (SDOH) data integration

Information Blocking General

Electronic Health Information

Preventing Harm Exception

Reporting Claims of Information Blocking

With a projected start date of April 5, 2021, the program rule on Interoperability, Information Blocking, and ONC Health IT Certification, which implements the 21st Century Cures Act, requires that healthcare providers give patients access without charge to all the health information in their electronic medical records “without delay.” This includes things like open notes.

The content and manner exception limits information blocking to data thats part of the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) for the first 18 months of compliance, or April 5, 2021, through October 6, 2022.