21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, & The ONC Health IT Certification Program

The rule was issued on March 9, 2020, by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). It finalized rules on electronic health information (EHI) interoperability and consumer access. As of April 3, 2020, the ONC final rule had not yet been published in the Federal Register; once officially published it will go into effect 60 days later.

The rule calls on the health care industry to adopt standardized application programming interfaces (APIs). EHI systems must be accessible electronically by any device, and consumers must be able to access . . .