[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":2653,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, as directed by the 21st Century Cures Act, is currently developing a proposed rule\u2014slated for release in the spring of 2018\u2014that will address the definition of information blocking and could have potentially serious implications for bad actors.

\u201cNetworks often have issues of anti-competitive behavior in them,\u201d observes National Coordinator for Health IT Donald Rucker, MD. \u201cAs we look at interoperability, there are a number of things we can do\u201d to address information blocking, Rucker says.

Ultimately, ONC\u2019s information blocking rule will be used by the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Office of the Inspector General to guide its investigations and enforcement activities related to provider and vendor actions that serve to impede the electronic flow of data between healthcare organizations.

Under the Cures Act, the HHS OIG is given the authority to investigate claims of information blocking and assign financial penalties of as much as $1 million per violation for practices found to be interfering with the lawful sharing of electronic health records.

Also See<\/b>: Pew, AMIA say budget cut could thwart ONC\u2019s Cures Act goals<\/a>

\u201cThe Cures Act, in essence, puts interoperability tools in that serve as some type of a judge\u2014though not by any means the sole judge,\u201d adds Rucker, who has been at the helm of ONC for eight months.

However, interoperability experts like John Halamka, MD, chief information officer at Boston\u2019s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Micky Tripathi, president and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, see information blocking as a myth that has come to be accepted as fact in healthcare.

\u201cI have yet to encounter a Chief Information Blocking Officer, who wakes up (each morning) figuring out how not to exchange data,\u201d comments Halamka. \u201cWhere there is a business case and there is appropriate policy, data flows. At Beth Israel Deaconess, I exchange 5,000 full medical records electronically every day.\u201d

Similarly, Tripathi has concerns about the Cures Act\u2019s \u201cdraconian\u201d methods of dealing with \u201cinformation blocking\u201d which is defined by the law as practices that are \u201clikely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information.\u201d In particular, he worries that this stick approach could be potentially unfair and unjust depending on the way it is ultimately implemented.

\u201cJohn and Micky have built up a very high-quality, functioning network,\u201d responds Rucker. \u201cIf you\u2019re John Halamka sitting in Boston using a network that they\u2019ve worked on, the world works. In other places, I don\u2019t think you can necessarily say that. It really is just local variation combined with a different perspective.\u201d

According to Rucker, the ability for health information to interoperate overall has been \u201cpatchy\u201d at best nationwide. Congress in the Cures Act looks at it from the perspective of a purchaser of health IT that has yet to see a return on the investment for taxpayers, Rucker explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent tens of billions of dollars explicitly on electronic health records,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe paid for interoperable records\u2014why aren\u2019t we getting it?\u201d

At the same time, Rucker makes the case that EHRs are \u201cin large part driven by reimbursement requirements that happened well before the existence of ONC.\u201d He asks \u201cin an alternate universe, how many of those things would be there under some different payment situation?\u201d

Rucker says the Trump administration, including ONC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service, are \u201cheavily interested in revisiting this sort of accrued stack of regulations.\u201d He concludes that the \u201cway that our healthcare system is paid has a profound misalignment of incentives\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019re in constant communication with CMS to sort through these issues.\u201d","saveContent":"The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, as directed by the 21st Century Cures Act, is currently developing a proposed rule\u2014slated for release in the spring of 2018\u2014that will address the definition of information blocking and could have potentially serious implications for bad actors.

\u201cNetworks often have issues of anti-competitive behavior in them,\u201d observes National Coordinator for Health IT Donald Rucker, MD. \u201cAs we look at interoperability, there are a number of things we can do\u201d to address information blocking, Rucker says.

Ultimately, ONC\u2019s information blocking rule will be used by the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Office of the Inspector General to guide its investigations and enforcement activities related to provider and vendor actions that serve to impede the electronic flow of data between healthcare organizations.

Under the Cures Act, the HHS OIG is given the authority to investigate claims of information blocking and assign financial penalties of as much as $1 million per violation for practices found to be interfering with the lawful sharing of electronic health records.

Also See<\/b>: Pew, AMIA say budget cut could thwart ONC\u2019s Cures Act goals<\/a>

\u201cThe Cures Act, in essence, puts interoperability tools in that serve as some type of a judge\u2014though not by any means the sole judge,\u201d adds Rucker, who has been at the helm of ONC for eight months.

However, interoperability experts like John Halamka, MD, chief information officer at Boston\u2019s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Micky Tripathi, president and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, see information blocking as a myth that has come to be accepted as fact in healthcare.

\u201cI have yet to encounter a Chief Information Blocking Officer, who wakes up (each morning) figuring out how not to exchange data,\u201d comments Halamka. \u201cWhere there is a business case and there is appropriate policy, data flows. At Beth Israel Deaconess, I exchange 5,000 full medical records electronically every day.\u201d

Similarly, Tripathi has concerns about the Cures Act\u2019s \u201cdraconian\u201d methods of dealing with \u201cinformation blocking\u201d which is defined by the law as practices that are \u201clikely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information.\u201d In particular, he worries that this stick approach could be potentially unfair and unjust depending on the way it is ultimately implemented.

\u201cJohn and Micky have built up a very high-quality, functioning network,\u201d responds Rucker. \u201cIf you\u2019re John Halamka sitting in Boston using a network that they\u2019ve worked on, the world works. In other places, I don\u2019t think you can necessarily say that. It really is just local variation combined with a different perspective.\u201d

According to Rucker, the ability for health information to interoperate overall has been \u201cpatchy\u201d at best nationwide. Congress in the Cures Act looks at it from the perspective of a purchaser of health IT that has yet to see a return on the investment for taxpayers, Rucker explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent tens of billions of dollars explicitly on electronic health records,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe paid for interoperable records\u2014why aren\u2019t we getting it?\u201d

At the same time, Rucker makes the case that EHRs are \u201cin large part driven by reimbursement requirements that happened well before the existence of ONC.\u201d He asks \u201cin an alternate universe, how many of those things would be there under some different payment situation?\u201d

Rucker says the Trump administration, including ONC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service, are \u201cheavily interested in revisiting this sort of accrued stack of regulations.\u201d He concludes that the \u201cway that our healthcare system is paid has a profound misalignment of incentives\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019re in constant communication with CMS to sort through these issues.\u201d","order":0,"get_parent":{},"attributes":[],"attributesType":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"dynamicContent":""}]

ONC plans to release rule to tackle information blocking in early 2018

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