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CHA Issues Summaries on Interoperability Proposed Rules

Comments due May 3

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CHA has issued detailed summaries, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, of the interoperability proposed rules recently published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

The proposed rules are intended to improve the interoperability of health information and include provisions for hospitals and other providers, health plans and health information technology vendors.

Of note, the CMS-proposed rule includes a proposal to revise the Medicare conditions of participation to require hospitals — including psychiatric and critical access hospitals — to send electronic notifications when a patient is admitted, discharged, or transferred.

Other provisions include publicly reporting clinicians and hospitals that are found to have participated in information blocking, requiring payers in CMS programs to make patient claims and other health information available to patients through third-party applications and developers, and updating 2015 edition health IT certification criteria to promote the adoption of standardized application programming interfaces.

The ONC-proposed rule outlines seven proposed exceptions to the information blocking definition required by 21st Century Cures Act.

Comments on both rules are due by 2 p.m. (PT) on May 3. Members who wish to provide input for comments should contact Megan Howard, senior policy analyst, at mhoward@calhospital.org or (202) 488-3742.

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