America’s Essential Hospitals on Sept. 30 submitted comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on the proposed rule for Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Patient Engagement, Information Sharing, and Public Health Interoperability (HTI-2). The proposed rule implements provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act and aims to improve health information sharing and interoperability.
Notably, the HTI-2 rule proposes two new sets of criteria under the ONC Health IT Certification Program, including:
- Public health–oriented certification criteria to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Data Modernization Initiative
- Payer-oriented certification criteria supporting technical requirements for electronic prior authorization as detailed in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) Interoperability and Prior Authorization final rule
In the comments, the association urged ONC to finalize the proposed prior authorization application programming interfaces (APIs) and to collaborate with CMS to provide up-front funding and technical assistance for essential hospitals to implement the new APIs.
Contact Director of Policy Rob Nelb at rnelb@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with questions.