Vanderbilt University Medical Center has assembled a cross-functional team to help ensure the Nashville, Tenn.-based health system is prepared to comply with HHS' new interoperability rules Nov. 1.
The team includes personnel from various VUMC departments, including patient experience, health information management, health IT, revenue cycle, clinical operations and the legal affairs office. The group has also called on help from outside actors to interpret some of the rules and direct necessary actions.
HHS' rules, issued by ONC and CMS, support the MyHealthEData Initiative and the 21st Century Cures Act. HHS finalized the rules on March 9 and later delayed enforcement in April to allow providers to focus efforts on their COVID-19 pandemic response.
The ONC rule establishes new regulations to prevent information blocking practices by providers, health IT developers, health information exchanges and health information networks. ONC's rule also requires certified application programming interface developers to ensure their API technology can be accessed easily by patients. Compliance for these regulations goes into effect Nov. 2.