The American Hospital Association expressed its opposition to parts of a new HHS interoperability rule aiming to facilitate better healthcare data exchange.
Here are six things to know:
1. ONC published the proposed Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Patient Engagement, Information Sharing, and Public Health Interoperability rule Aug. 5 to "advance interoperability, improve transparency, and support the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information."
2. In an Oct. 4 letter, the AHA said it supports parts of the rule: aligning CMS application programming interface requirements and recommendations; continuing to develop U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standards; committing to protect patient data; improving public health data interoperability; rolling out the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA); and revising information blocking request-response criteria.
3. "However, we are concerned that providers would still be held to a higher accountability standard for data sharing, USCDI version deadlines are too aggressive, new encryption requirements are burdensome, and TEFCA's current governance structure may be inadequate," the AHA wrote.
4. While the AHA supports prior authorization application programming interface certifications, the group said payers, like providers, should also have mandatory, rather than voluntary, standards to "ensure that protecting the privacy of patient data is prioritized."
5. The AHA asked ONC to clarify that hospitals and health systems would not be in violation of interoperability and information-blocking rules if their Qualified Health Information Network gets suspended or terminated from TEFCA.
6. The AHA also proposed extending the time for responding to a data request that falls under an information-blocking exception from 10 days to 30.