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Learn more about HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
Health IT Certification New Resources to Help Health IT Developers Understand ONC Cures Act Final Rule Requirements
Robert Anthony | January 4, 2021
As the compliance dates for the 21st Century Cures Act: Information Blocking, Interoperability, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program Final Rule (ONC Cures Act Final Rule) draw nearer, ONC has created additional resources to assist the health IT developer community. These resources include a consolidated view of key dates, a criterion-by-criterion resource for the 2015 Edition Cures Update, and a deep dive into forthcoming certified application programming interface (API) requirements.
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Health IT How Proposed Implementation Specifications for Application Programming Interfaces Would Help to Further Reduce Burden
Elisabeth Myers | December 22, 2020
On December 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services released a notice of proposed rulemaking Reducing Provider and Patient Burden by Improving Prior Authorization Processes, and Promoting Patients’ Electronic Access to Health Information, which builds on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access final rule released earlier this year. This new proposed rule includes additional proposed requirements for payers to implement standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) that can help address critical health care challenges such as improving the efficiency of prior authorization processes.
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Health Data Taking a LEAP: Transposing the Apps Model for Individual Health Records to Population Health
Tracy Okubo | December 18, 2020
Because of advances in interoperability, it’s becoming increasingly common for people and their healthcare providers to access and share information from electronic health records (EHRs) using apps. Could this same approach allow large-scale data sharing between healthcare provider organizations, payors (Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers), or public health officials? An app providing shared insights into a common dataset could transform the way value-based care is delivered and measured.
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Usability Showing the Way to Useful Health IT through Human Factors and Ergonomics
Teresa Zayas Cabán, PhD | December 17, 2020
For health IT to benefit health and healthcare, it must be useable by – and useful to – patients and clinicians. This is precisely where the discipline of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) serves as an essential foundation for the development, implementation, and use of high-quality health information systems and practices. HFE improves overall performance through study of interactions among humans and other elements of a system.
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21st Century Cures Act, Information Blocking Pssst…Information blocking practices, your days are numbered…Pass it on.
Steven Posnack | December 16, 2020
Passed four years ago, the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) included a definition of “information blocking.” On behalf of the HHS Secretary, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) was tasked with implementing this definition and its “exceptions.” The new regulation (also a “law”) published in the Federal Register this past May by ONC identified three types of participants in health care that are covered under information blocking: 1) health care providers,
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