Information blocking practices inhibit care coordination, interoperability, and healthcare’s forward progress. The ONC’s proposed rule ushers in the next phase of the Cures Act by defining information blocking practices and allowed exceptions. To make the final rule as strong as possible, exceptions should be narrowly defined. In proposed form these include the following:
Preventing Harm.
Promoting the Privacy of EHI.
Promoting the Security of EHI.
Recovering Costs Reasonably Incurred.
Responding to Request that are Infeasible.
Licensing of Interoperability Elements on Reasonable and Non-discriminatory Terms.
Maintaining and Improving Health IT Performance.
This article covers each of these exceptions and discusses what to watch for in the final version of the rule.