The federal Health IT Advisory Committee's Information Blocking Task Force advanced several recommendations May 13 to ONC's proposed interoperability rule, according to a Politico Morning eHealth newsletter.
However, HITAC, a 25-member advisory committee created under the 21st Century Cures Act and provides policy recommendations to the ONC, postponed voting on its recommendations for the rule's pricing and fees caps.
Five things to know:
1. The committee passed almost 50 recommendations, including those related to supporting security and privacy of electronic health data.
2. HITAC also approved establishing standards that regulate how much time an organization has to respond to health information requests.
3. The committee also recommended guidelines to determine how long providers and vendors will have to update their contracts after the rule is enacted. Companies will have five years and vendors should propose any updates after two years.
4. Regarding information access fees, HITAC recommended ONC differentiate between basic access and value-added access. Basic access pertains to information such as prospective patient-specific pricing for procedures and lab orders and results, while value-added access refers to uses like decision support software.
5. For basic access, vendors could charge fees to make up for expenses, but not to make a profit. Value-added access, which is data that expands beyond basic access, presents vendors with fewer fee restrictions.
HITAC postponed voting on its fee structure recommendations until its next meeting, which is May 22.
To access HITAC's full list of recommendations, click here.