DIGEST
Coordinator’s Quarterly
September 2026
The Coordinator’s Quarterly provides key information and updates on ONC policies and activities from the previous quarter, along with research findings, resources, and perspectives on the evolving health IT landscape.
Leadership Perspectives
New & Notable
New ONC research and perspectives examine how health IT is improving access to information for patients and clinicians. This quarter, explore findings on hospital adoption of real-time prescription benefit tools, opportunities to give clinicians more time with patients through better interoperability, and approaches to delivering test results that put patients’ needs at the center.
Hospital Adoption of Real-Time Prescription Benefit Tools
This data brief provides a national baseline of real-time prescription benefits (RTPB) availability in U.S. hospitals in 2025, ahead of the 2028 requirement for RTPB certification as part of the Base EHR definition.
Less Pajama Time, More Patient Time: How Better Interoperability Can Reduce Physician Burden
New data analysis from 8,400 family physicians show progress in reducing some clinician administrative burdens, particularly after-hours documentation and information retrieval.
From Immediate Access to Meaningful Delivery: A Patient-Centered Approach to Delivering Test Results
Despite the widespread use of patient portals to deliver electronic health information, just 28% of all patients and 33% of patient portal users reported being given the chance to indicate how and when they wanted to receive their results.
Expert Perspectives
Explore how health IT has evolved to give patients and clinicians greater access to information and tools that support care. These perspectives trace progress in electronic prescribing and patient access to health data, examine the growth of digital patient engagement, and highlight recent ONC work to increase prescription drug cost transparency and reduce administrative burden.
The Evolution of Electronic Prescribing
E-prescribing grew from 7% of prescribers in 2008 to 92% by 2020; next steps are prescription completeness and real-time benefit info.
RESOURCES
The Evolution of Patient-Centered Care: Patient Access to Their Health Data
In October 2023, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services held an event to share initiatives that help patients access their health data.
RESOURCES
How Digitization of Patient Access Empowered Patients
In 2024, more patients than ever before accessed their medical records online through web browsers and apps to manage their health – here’s why that matters.
RESOURCES
Hospital Patient Engagement Capabilities
In the second blog in the Digital Dividends series, we look at how U.S. hospitals are helping enable that access, with a focus on where policy priorities, patient demand, and industry efforts have aligned to deliver on the promise of digitalization.
RESOURCES
ONC Rule Creates Prescription Drug Cost Transparency, Eases Administrative Burden, and Speeds Access to Care
ONC released a final rule enabling the use of certified EHRs to submit prior authorizations, select drugs consistent with a patient’s insurance coverage, and exchange electronic prescription information with pharmacies and insurance plans.
RESOURCES
In Case You Missed It…
Check out these recent announcements from ONC and learn about what’s been happening the past quarter.
- The data element lists for USCDI+ MH and Postpartum Transitions of Care have been published.
- Nine teams advanced to Phase 2 of the EHIgnite Challenge: Phase 1 and showcased their solutions.
- USCDI Version 7 added 31 data elements and two new data classes – read Standards Bulletin 2026-2 for a detailed overview.
- The KidneyX Empower Challenge winners have been announced.
- HHS, the American Society of Nephrology, and leaders from across the kidney care community joined together for the Kidney Data Discovery Workshop series – which included the KidneyX Empower Challenge winners showcase.
- Check out Cartos — a FHIR-enabled terminology service that helps implementers find, understand, and use terminology content connected to ONC regulations and the SVAP.
- The final USCDI+ Quality v2 and the updated USCDI+ Quality Overarching data element list have been released.