News: HHS releases final interoperability rulings, gives patients access to documentation

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has finalized two interoperability rules to give patients direct access to their healthcare data, reported HealthLeaders Media.

The two rules, issued by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and CMS, were announced last year with the final rules. They are expected to "empower patients around a common aim—giving every American access to their medical information so they can make better healthcare decisions," according to a CMS release.

The newly released ONC/CMS rule requires hospitals and doctors to provide software access points to their EHR databases so that patients can download their own records.

The CMS rule also affects payers, and starting in 2021 all health plans doing business with Medicare and Medicaid must share their health data with their patients through a secure standards-based application programming interface (API).

The rule also requires payers to make their provider directories publicly accessible through a provider directory API starting in 2021. This will allow third parties to design apps that will help patients evaluate which plan networks are right for them and potentially avoid surprise billing.

The rule received many comments from the public. While most pertained to price transparency, concerns about protecting patient privacy rose to the forefront, reported HealthLeaders Media. EHR vendor Epic Systems launched an initiative to delay the ONC ruling until it was certain that patient privacy issues were addressed.

From a CDI perspective, this rule could have lasting implications for documentation requirements as well. Not only does physician documentation need to be clear and thorough enough to translate into accurate codes, but it needs to be understandable for patients and accurately paint the picture of their case.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in HealthLeaders Media. To read more about interoperability, click here.