On Thursday October 29, 2020, in recognition of the health care system’s need to focus on the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, the ONC extended certain deadlines and timeframes for complying with the Interoperability and Information Blocking Rule (published May 1, 2020 to implement the 21st Century Cures Act). In the Interim Final Rule, extensions have been provided for the applicability dates for the new Information Blocking Rule, certain 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria, and Conditions and Maintenance of Certification requirements under the ONC Health IT Certification Program.

The rules, originally published on May 1, 2020, set forth that the Interoperability and Information Blocking rule applicable to healthcare providers, health IT developers of certified health IT, health information exchanges, and health information networks, was set to become applicable on November 2, 2020. Through the Interim Final Rule, that date has been pushed out to April 5, 2021 for most of the information blocking provisions.  Other provisions applicable to health IT developers have been pushed out further. This includes the compliance date for 2015 Edition Cures Update certification criteria, which has been extended until December 31, 2022.

The Interim Final Rule (IFR) is available here.

See page 9 of the IFR for Table of Applicability and Compliance Dates.