The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT’s information blocking final rule, part of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), goes into effect April 5, 2021.
At a high level, the final rule prohibits health providers, technology vendors, health information exchanges, and health information networks from preventing the exchange, use, or access of electronic health information (EHI).
Embedded within the rules are eight exceptions that empower providers to deny EHI requests without being tagged as information blockers.
As a result, provider organizations need well-defined processes to evaluate and review requests; maintain documentation for compliance purposes; and determine how denials are consistently tailored to one or more of the information blocking exceptions.