AHA urges ONC to further delay information blocking provisions

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology should extend the deadline to comply with its final rule implementing information blocking provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act to 2022 or six months after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, whichever is later, AHA said in comments submitted last week.

The current deadline is April 5, 2021.

AHA also encouraged ONC to extend until Dec. 31, 2023, the period during which the definition of Electronic Health Information applies for information blocking purposes to the data elements in the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability.

In addition, it urged the agency to disseminate additional FAQs to help health care providers develop organizational approaches to preventing information blocking, and focus initially on education and corrective action rather than financial penalties for providers found to have engaged in information blocking.