The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adopted the HHS Health IT Alignment Policy in July 2022 to align department-wide health IT activities. ONC was tasked with leading these efforts by working across HHS to promote greater alignment of health IT-related activities in support of the department’s health IT and interoperability goals. In consultation with ONC, HHS operating and staff divisions are now including standard health IT language in applicable grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and rulemaking/guidance to ensure alignment of the department’s health IT investments, to the extent legally permissible. Divisions are also working with ONC to maximize health IT alignment opportunities for any major health IT-related activity.
Through greater alignment of health IT-related activities across the department, HHS is ensuring consistent use of interoperable standards and fully exercising departmental authorities. These efforts will ensure alignment of activities to avoid data silos and industry confusion, while better supporting each agency’s mission. It is also improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the department’s health IT investments, ensuring consistency in approaches to the collection and use of health equity-related information, and providing the ability to analyze data trends that can inform program operations across HHS.
Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
What is the purpose of the HHS Health IT Alignment Policy?
The policy is intended to ensure that contracts and agreements with all recipients of funding from HHS that involve implementing, acquiring, or upgrading health IT align with HHS-adopted standards. This policy also encourages the use of voluntary consensus standards in the case there is no HHS-adopted standard.
The policy is critical to avoid the proliferation of ad-hoc health IT and data silos that undercut the effectiveness and efficiency of the department’s policies and programs. Such data silos can be costly for federal and state agencies and private sector partners to create and maintain, have no synergies across programs, and—due to lack of alignment across and within HHS agencies—impose significant burden on health care providers, technology developers, and other health care professionals.
What is health IT?
Health information technology is defined in Section 3000 of the Public Health Service Act and codified at 45 CFR 170.102. The regulation defines health information technology as hardware, software, integrated technologies or related licenses, intellectual property, upgrades, or packaged solutions sold as services that are designed for or support the use by health care entities or patients for the electronic creation, maintenance, access, or exchange of health information.
What am I required to do for this policy?
All funding requirements will be laid out in the notice of funding and solicitations to which you are applying and/or in the requirements of receiving the funding. Refer to the agreements that are laid out between you and the agency from whom you are receiving funding. The policy is intended to ensure that all recipients of funding from HHS and its sub-agencies who use health IT are also using HHS-adopted standards or, at a minimum, voluntary consensus standards.
What does it mean to implement health IT?
Health IT implementation includes any use of health information technology, including but not limited to, the collection, storage, and sharing of health information.
What if I use health IT as a part of my program implementation but it is not explicitly mentioned in my funding award? Should I use health IT standards?
Yes. There are many benefits to incorporating relevant health IT standards as appropriate and feasible into a program such as for supporting grantee reporting and advancing the interoperable use of health data. Relevant health IT data standards may include ONC-adopted standards as well as standards found within the Interoperability Standards Advisory.
What are health IT standards as defined in this policy?
Health IT standards are agreed-upon methods for connecting systems together. Standards may pertain to security, data transport, data format or structure, or the meanings of codes or terms. Standards are defined, updated, and maintained by standards development organizations through a collaborative process involving the audience that will be using the standards.
Where can I find a list of certified health IT products that use standards?
You can find a list of certified health IT products on the Certified Health IT Product List, maintained by ONC.
Where can I find the health IT standards that are relevant to my implementation of this HHS funding?
All ONC-adopted health IT standards are codified in 45 CFR Part 170, Subpart B. For additional voluntary consensus standards, please refer to the Interoperability Standards Advisory.
What are voluntary consensus standards?
Voluntary consensus standards are developed and/or adopted by standards development organizations using a development process that is open, balanced, and allows appeals.
Why are data standards important?
Standards ensure a high degree of interoperability among health IT systems. With increased interoperability, entities who use health IT can more readily share information that is necessary for increased efficiency and effectiveness.