9 hours ago Mar 09, 2020 · The CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule establishes policies that break down barriers in the nation’s health system to enable better patient access to their health information, improve interoperability and unleash innovation, while reducing burden on … >> Go To The Portal
Mar 09, 2020 · The CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule establishes policies that break down barriers in the nation’s health system to enable better patient access to their health information, improve interoperability and unleash innovation, while reducing burden on …
Jul 17, 2020 · The Interoperability and Patient Access final rule (CMS-9115-F) put patients first by giving them access to their health information when they need it most, and in a …
Apr 26, 2018 · Interoperability, APIs Critical for Effective Patient Portal Use APIs will help enhance patient engagement technology by allowing patients to plug their health information in from multiple patient portals. Source: Thinkstock By Sara Heath
Nov 02, 2015 · November 02, 2015 - When it comes to delivery of medical test results, patients are comfortable enough with healthcare interoperability to prefer password-protected websites or portals over more...
When implemented effectively, health information exchange (interoperability) can also reduce the burden of certain administrative processes, such as prior authorization. We have issued regulations that will drive change in how clinical and administrative information is exchanged between payers, providers and patients, and will support more efficient care coordination.
As of July 1, 2021, two of the policies from the May 2020 Interoperability and Patient Access final rule are now in effect. On April 30, 2021, the requirements for hospitals with certain EHR capabilities to send admission, discharge and transfer notifications to other providers went into effect. On July 1, 2021, CMS began to enforce requirements for certain payers to support Patient Access and Provider Directory APIs. Additional information is available on the FAQ page and in the other information available below.
FHIR Release 4.0.1 provides the first set of normative FHIR resources. A subset of FHIR resources is normative, and future changes on those resources marked normative will be backward compatible. These resources define the content and structure of core health data, which developers to build standardized applications.
In August 2020, CMS released a letter to state health officers detailing how state Medicaid agencies should implement the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule in a manner consistent with existing guidance. There are many provisions in this regulation that impact Medicaid and CHIP Fee-For-Service (FFS) programs, Medicaid managed care plans, and CHIP managed care entities, and this letter discusses those issues. Additionally, this letter advises states that they should be aware of the ONC’s 21st Century Cures Act final rule on information blocking. The link for the letter is:
The Interoperability and Patient Access final rule (CMS-9115-F) put patients first by giving them access to their health information when they need it most, and in a way they can best use it. This final rule focused on driving interoperability and patient access to health information by liberating patient data using CMS authority to regulate Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers on the Federally-facilitated Exchanges (FFEs).
Payers are required to make a patient’s claims and encounter data available via the Patient Access API.
OpenID Connect 1.0 is a simple identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol. It enables clients to verify the identity of the end-user based on the authentication performed by an authorization server, as well as to obtain basic profile information about the end-user in an interoperable and RESTful manner. This specification defines the core OpenID Connect functionality: authentication built on top of OAuth 2.0 and the use of claims to communicate information about the end-user. It also describes the security and privacy considerations for using OpenID Connect.
April 26, 2018 - Better health IT interoperability and application programming interface (API) use are essential for making the most out of the patient portal and other patient engagement technology, according to ONC head Don Rucker, MD.
In a recent ONC blog post, Rucker explained that better health IT interoperability and the use of APIs will enable patients to access their own medical information and organize that information in a way that is usable and makes sense to them. Currently, healthcare consumers do not have access to usable patient engagement technologies, which serves as a barrier to health improvement.
The MyHealtheData initiative, announced earlier this year at HIMSS18, calls for providers and health IT developers to enable patients in accessing their own medical data.
ONC and workers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are also working to develop apps for patients to share their own disease-specific data as a part of the All of Us Research Program focusing on precision medicine.
For example, patients visiting multiple different types of doctors – a primary care physician, a dermatologist, and an OBGYN, for example – might have a different patient portal for each provider. While it is certainly a positive thing that patients have access to their health data, it is not useful when the patient has to manage multiple log-ins and other portal information.
Instead, patients should be able to see all of this data, regardless of provider origin, in one aggregate location.
Some health IT developers are currently stepping up to the plate. Earlier this year, Apple announced efforts to help patients access their own health data in the medical records app on Apple products. It has been several years since CMS first began mandating patients have access to their own medical records.
The CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule calls on Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP health plans, as well as those sold on the federal exchanges, to grant electronic access to patient claims data. This move builds on to the Blue Button 2.0 initiative launched in 2018.
Patients and the health care providers caring for them are often presented with an incomplete picture of their health and care as pieces of their information are stored in various, unconnected systems and do not accompany the patient to every care setting.”. At the core of both rules is an effort to give patients better access to their own medical ...
These exceptions largely pertain to patient privacy and security; protecting patients from some type of harm; protecting providers that cannot materialized data exchange due to uncontrollable events, like natural disaster; or the performance of their health IT system.
The ONC rule prohibits health IT developers from taking any action that ONC says constitutes information blocking. The rule provided a list of eight reasonable exceptions that do not constitute information blocking. These are actions that ONC deems reasonable and acceptable on the part of providers.
The rules, issued out of the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), each target provider and payer interoperability, both with the end goal of empowering patients with better data access.
Starting in January of 2021, patient claims data must be shareable with patients via a third-party app powered by a FHIR-based API. This will help patients be the arbiters of their own health data interoperability when they switch between multiple health plans.
The agency will publicly report on any eligible hospital or critical access hospital attesting under the Promoting Interoperability Program that has submitted a “ no” response to any of the attestation requirements pertaining to information blocking .
The health interoperability ecosystem comprises individuals, systems and processes that want to share, exchange and access all forms of health information, including discrete, narrative and multimedia.
The Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) process represents a single, public list of standards and implementation specifications published by ONC. ONC coordinates the identification, assessment and determination of these recommended standards and implementation specifications for industry use to fulfill specific clinical health IT interoperability needs. Stakeholders are encouraged to implement and use these recommended standards as applicable to their needs.
The Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) process represents a single, public list of standards and implementation specifications published by ONC. ONC coordinates the identification, assessment and determination of these recommended standards and implementation specifications for industry use to fulfill specific clinical health IT interoperability needs. Stakeholders are encouraged to implement and use these recommended standards as applicable to their needs.
HIMSS and PCHAlliance strongly urge prioritization of necessary funding and technical assistance to implement modern health information and technology strategies to ensure timely interoperability and sharing of public health surveillance data. An important component is the work in partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems that support this multi-year effort to modernize public health data systems, surveillance and analytics at the CDC, and state, local and tribal health departments. Funding included in the Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Package and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, will help address some of the challenges, but in the long term, we need a predictable and sustained funding source to fully tackle this issue.
Standards provide a common language and a common set of expectations that enable interoperability between systems and/or devices. In order to seamlessly digest information about an individual and improve the overall coordination and delivery of healthcare, standards permit clinicians, labs, hospitals, pharmacies and patients to share data regardless of application or market supplier.
Core Data for Interoperability is a “standardized set of health data classes and constituent data elements for nationwide, interoperable health information exchange.”. A “Data Class” is an “aggregation of various Data Elements by a common theme or use case.”.
While you can implement a standard in a number of different ways, when using an implementation guide to integrate a standard into a health IT system, the guide directs one way to constrain the standard for a particular situation, removing ambiguity and achieving consistency.
Patient record sharing automatically locates your patient’s records and surfaces them directly into your workflow. You get the data you need when you need it and can stay focused on your patients.
Technology that supports clinical efficiency while keeping you ahead of industry change.
Tethered portals simply refer to EHR portals that are provided by the same vendor as an EHR system, while untethered portals are more likely to be vendor agnostic. With a nod to the aforementioned findings that physicians prefer tethered portals, let’s examine three popular examples of tethered portals.
It would be a huge oversight not to mention the portal for the most popular EHR on the market. Although MyChart only integrates with EPIC EHRs – par for the course at this point – the portal does offer providers, and patients, a wide range of functionality. Patients can install MyChart’s mobile app on their smartphone or tablet and access their records while traveling or on-the-go.
By acquiring Jardogs and its FollowMyHealth system, Allscripts added one of the most robust patient portal applications as a supplement to its electronic health record system. Providers already considered Jardogs’s patient portal a best-of-breed application before it was purchased by Allscripts. The portal’s interoperability allows patients to aggregate data from disparate sources and use the portal as a personal health record.
Empowering patients by giving them access to their health information so they can make the best-informed decisions about their care, all while keeping that information safe and secure.
Driving to value-based care by promoting seamless data exchange across the care continuum.
Promoting the use of the latest technology and standards to drive innovation and data exchange in healthcare.
New third-party developers must first create an account to be granted access to the HCSC Interoperability Solution portal. To begin the process, click the Create Account button below.
Already created an account? Begin browsing the HCSC Interoperability Solution Portal by clicking the Log In button below.
Interested third-party Application (App) developers can browse the API Catalog and access the related API documentation by clicking the APIs button below.