Interoperability and Patient Access to Health Data Proposed Rule Summary

On February 22, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services formally released a proposed rule on interoperability and patient access to health data. Under the proposed rule, Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies, Medicaid and CHIP managed care plans, and qualified health plans (QHP) issuers in the federally-facilitated exchanges (FFEs) would be required to meet certain requirements regarding patient access to their health care information, including requirements related to application programming interfaces (APIs). Among other issues, the rule proposes public reporting related to provider attestations regarding information blocking. The proposed rule also includes Requests for Information (RFIs) related to advancing interoperability across the care continuum and improving patient matching. This rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on March 4, 2019. The public comment period ends on May 3, 2019.