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CHA Attends ONC Annual Meeting Ahead of Release of Interoperability and Information Blocking Final Rules

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CHA attended the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) annual meeting this week in Washington, D.C. At the meeting, ONC said that final rules on interoperability and information blocking — to be issued by ONC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

CHA submitted comments on the 2019 proposed rules, urging the agencies to ensure that implementation of the proposed policies does not create additional regulatory burden in the health care system. Specifically, CHA opposed the CMS proposal to use the Medicare conditions of participation as the mechanism to require electronic patient event notifications for admission, discharge, and transfer, and raised a number of concerns about ONC’s information-blocking requirements. 

The annual meeting also included key sessions on developments in patient matching and health care data privacy issues.

In addition, yesterday Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar emphasized the administration’s commitment to a patient-centered, competitive health care system and the importance of patient ownership of their health care data to support choice.