CMS Proposed Rule Focuses on Patient Access to Health Info

Yesterday’s Rivkin Rounds post discussed the Proposed Rule on information blocking recently released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) simultaneously released its own 251-page Proposed Rule, addressing some of the same concerns but focused on interoperability and patients’ access to their own health information.

CMS proposes to standardize data and technical approaches to advance interoperability, the seamless sharing of health information from one provider or platform to another. The rule would also require providers to adopt technologies to allow patients of federal programs easier access to their data. Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicare Advantage plans and Qualified Health Plans would need to make enrollee data immediately accessible by 2020.

CMS also proposes to post publicly the names of providers or hospitals that engage in information blocking, which would support ONC’s efforts to reduce the prevalence of the practice.