The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, released the Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: TEFCA (HTI-2) final rule on Dec. 11. The abbreviated final rule focuses only on provisions related to TEFCA and excludes several other sections in the proposed rule.
Established under the 21st Century Cures Act, the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is a nationwide interoperability framework that helps health care providers, payers, and public health organizations share patients’ health information. The HTI-2 final rule amends the information blocking regulations by defining terms related to the TEFCA manner exception and implements provisions to support reliability, privacy, security, and trust.
The final rule:
- Outlines the qualifications and processes for entities to receive and maintain designation as a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN)
- Establishes procedures for onboarding, suspension, termination, and administrative appeals for QHINs
- Codifies requirements for QHIN attestation related to TEFCA
The rule does not change the TEFCA manner exception but confirms that limiting electronic health information exchange solely via TEFCA is not considered information blocking if certain conditions are met.
In an October comment letter, the association urged the agency to finalize the proposed prior authorization application programming interfaces and work with CMS to provide up-front funding and technical assistance for implementation. The rule did not address these prior authorization provisions.
Contact Director of Policy Rob Nelb, MPH, at rnelb@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with questions.