THE 21ST CENTURY CURES ACT

Anti-Information Blocking Rules for Healthcare Providers

Congress, via HHS, is promoting patient access, exchange, and use of their health information with the 21st Century Cures Final Rule in two main ways. First, Anti-“Information Blocking” regulations on healthcare providers, EMR developers, payers, and HIE/HINs. Second, better technology standards that will result in easier, more universal, use of electronic health information:

• Provider must not block or interfere or materially discourage the access, exchange or use of patient health information.
• Providers must release request health information in the manner requested by the patient unless it is technically infeasible, in which case the information must be provided in an alternative manner.
• Generally speaking, the provider may not charge patients any fees.
• There are eight exceptions to the information blocking requirement which, if invoked by providers, usually require documented, written policies that are always applied evenly, in a non-discriminatory fashion.
• Patients may request their health information be interfaced to any third-party app via an API.
• EMR developers may charge limited fees to the provider both for the maintenance and updating of technology and on a per usage basic, under conditions specified in the rule.
• See more – What is Information Blocking?

Anti-Information Blocking Regulatory Timeline

• April 5, 2021: Information Blocking rules begin, scoped to USCDI v1
  Enforcement is scoped specifically to patient health information elements defined by a new standard, the USCDI v1 which is basically the content of CCDAs (already shared by certified EMRs like QEMR) plus medical notes (ex: Progress Note).
• December 31,2022: Information Blocking scope expands to Full Health Information (Full EHI) from the EHR
  Enforcement of Information Blocking requirements expand the scope of health information data elements beyond the scope of USCDI v1 to include all clinical data elements stored in the provider’s certified EHR system and that can be exported by that EHR system under a specific export capability requirement. Certified EHRs are required to offer a certified patient health information export before May 2, 2023.