HHS Announces New Rules Governing Electronic Health Records March 10, 2020
Written by MSDC Staff
On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced long-awaited final rules to improve the interoperability of electronic health records
The rules were announced yesterday but were overshadowed by questions around the growing COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.
The two rules were issued by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and CMS. Among the changes addressed by the rules are:
The rules were announced yesterday but were overshadowed by questions around the growing COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.
The two rules were issued by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and CMS. Among the changes addressed by the rules are:
- Establishing a standard API to allow the creation of patient apps and making health records accessible via mobile device.
- Further defining "reasonable and necessary activities that do not constitute information blocking" and establish new procedures to prevent "information blocking".
- Requiring EHRs to provide certain data to be made available to the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) to better coordinate care plans and patient matching with demographic considerations included.
- Establishing a new Condition of Participation (CoP) for all Medicaid and Medicare participating hospitals, requiring them to send electronic notifications to another health facility when a patient is discharged or admitted.