On March 9, 2020, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released its long-awaited final rule identifying conduct that does not constitute information blocking under Section 4004 of the 21st Century Cures Act. The final rule requires certain certified health IT developers, health care providers, health information networks (HINs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) (i.e., actors) to comply with the information blocking provisions beginning six months after publication of the final rule in the Federal Register (compliance date). The information blocking provisions of the final rule align more closely with the HIPAA Privacy Rule than ONC’s proposed rule. The final rule imposes robust limitations on practices that are likely to interfere with access, exchange or use of electronic health information (EHI).

In addition to finalizing the Cures Act’s information blocking provision, the final rule finalizes changes to ONC’s 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria, Health IT Certification Program and other ONC authorities. On the same day that ONC released the final rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a companion final rule on related interoperability issues....