When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this past week issued its final rule codifying the financial disincentives to be levied by its Office for Civil Rights against provider organizations found to have committed information blocking, reaction was swift and mostly dissatisfied from industry groups.

The point of such penalties, which could be significant for noncompliant health systems, is obviously to dissuade organizations from engaging in info blocking practices.

But hospitals and physician groups – echoing what they said about the proposed rules drafted this past fall – are complaining that the disincentives outlined in the June 24 final rule are "excessive" and may be counterproductive to the larger goal of value-based care.

As finalized, the new rules are "unnecessarily punitive penalties that will financially damage practices and negatively impact Medicare patients," said the Medical Group Management Association this past week. For its part, the American Hospital Association said it is "highly concerned that the disincentive structure retained in the final rule is excessive, confusing and imbalanced."

But others in the healthcare industry – admittedly, not the provider organizations bound by these rules – are taking a more optimistic view of what information blocking enforcement can do for patients. Healthcare IT News was sent several reactions to the final rule from leaders at a variety of technology companies whose tools are at work in healthcare settings. Here's some of what they had to say.

'Fundamental duty'

"I admire the ONC and CMS for enacting the 21st Century Cures Act," said Dr. Jay Anders, chief medical officer at analytics developer Medicomp Systems. "The stringent penalties it now imposes serve as a strong impetus for compliance. It's important to remember that patients suffer when their medical records are not readily available when needed. If we are to bend the cost curve in American healthcare, a full medical record for each patient must be available. The lack of shared patient information is not only costly but has the potential to be deadly."

Another chief medical officer agreed that the seriousness of the penalties was a necessary component to help prevent the seriously harmful effects of info blocking.

"The ONC drew a deep, harsh line in the sand, creating enormous economic and reputational risks, with penalties reaching a million dollars, and so far, at least, indicating that nearly all the 1,000 complaints reported to date meet the Office of the Inspector General’s criteria for investigation," said Dr. Colin Banas, CMO at DrFirst, which develops patient-focused medication management tools. "This foreshadows a painful reckoning ahead for any healthcare professional who impedes patient access and progress at this stage of advancing interoperability."

"Data is the single most important ingredient in our ability as a nation to transform healthcare," added Greg Miller, vice president of business development at Carta Healthcare, whose products are focused on clinical data abstraction. "The access and dissemination of quality data is essential to improving patient outcomes. Limiting data access and interoperability is harmful to patient care quality, increases costs and substantially reduces customer (patient) satisfaction."

For her part, Sandra Johnson, senior vice president of client services at EHR developer CliniComp, said she hoped the final rule would pave the way toward more free-flowing data that could be aggregated and accessed for better patient care.

"What is required to handle all incoming data is technology designed to seamlessly integrate and present data from disparate sources, ensuring a holistic view of patient health," she said. "By facilitating unrestricted access to electronic health information, we can advance coordinated and efficient care across the healthcare system."

Kim Perry, chief growth officer at emtelligent, which develops natural language processing for an array of clinical use cases, added that robust information is critical for care coordination and, in fact, aligns with a "fundamental duty to do what's right for our patients and the healthcare community; it also helps to unlock the full value of EHR records for care providers, patients and entire populations."

Meanwhile, Zack Tisch, senior vice president for healthcare services at Pivot Point Consulting, said it's about time HHS hold providers accountable for their data sharing practices.

"After many years of encouraging EHR platforms, application vendors and health information networks to 'eat their carrots' in the name of better and more coordinated care, Health & Human Services is now launching a long-overdue enforcement mechanism – significant financial penalties tied to Medicare Reimbursement, MIPS and the Medicare Shared Savings Program for non-participating entities," said Tisch.

"While these standards and expectations have been set for many years, we are still likely to see adoption challenges as health systems of all shapes and sizes struggle to find dollars, resources, and time to implement the variety of IT requirements currently on their roadmaps, which often include: interoperability, cloud migration, nearshoring/offshoring, AI/automation-powered workflow optimization, self-service analytics, digital transformation, and more.

"By policing information-blocking more rigorously and with full transparency," he added, the hope is to "advance the overarching objectives of the 21st Century Cures Act – promoting a healthcare ecosystem where data flows freely and securely to support patient-centered care and innovation."
 

Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.