ONC extends Information Blocking compliance deadlines
On October 29, 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) released an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period (IFC) that extended certain compliance dates and timeframes adopted in the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program Final Rule (ONC Cures Act Final Rule).
Importantly, this includes extension of the compliance dates for the Information Blocking provisions that were set to go into effect November 2, 2020. The table provided by the ONC that details the extensions is accessible here and copied below.
|
Provision |
Final Rule |
Enforcement Discretion Announcement |
Interim Final Rule with Comment Period |
|
Information Blocking Overall Applicability Date – (45 CFR part 171)3 |
November 2, 2020 |
N/A – No Change |
April 5, 2021 |
|
Condition of Certification (CoC) – Information Blocking – (§ 170.401) |
November 2, 2020 |
3 months after the |
|
|
CoC – Assurances – (§ 170.402(a)(1)) – Will not take any action that constitutes information blocking or actions that inhibit access, exchange, and use of |
November 2, 2020 |
3 months after the |
|
|
CoC – Assurances – (§ 170.402(a)(2) and (3), and (b)(1)) – Other |
Effective date: |
Enforcement discretion |
|
|
CoC – Communications – (§ 170.403) – Communications requirements, except for § 170.403(b)(1) where we removed the notice requirement for 2020 |
Effective date: |
Enforcement discretion |
|
|
CoC – API – (§ 170.404(b)(4)) – Compliance for current API criteria |
November 2, 2020 |
3 months after the |
|
|
CoC – API – (§ 170.404(b)(3)) – Rollout of new standardized API functionality |
May 2, 2022 |
3 months after the |
December 31, 2022 |
|
CoC – Real World Testing – 2015 Edition health IT certification criteria with standards updates |
May 2, 2022 |
3 months after the |
|
|
CoC – Assurances – (§ 170.402(a)(4) and (b)(2)) – EHI Export Rollout |
May 1, 2023 |
3 months after the |
December 31, 2023 |
|
CoC – Communications – (§ 170.403(b)(1)) – Notice to all customers with which developer has contracts or agreements containing provisions that contravene Communications CoC |
Annually beginning |
Notice can be made until |
Begin annual cycle 1 year later CY 2021 |
|
CoC – Initial Attestations – (§ 170.406) |
April 1-30, 2021 |
Generally remains the same |
Begin annual cycle 1 year later CY 2022 |
|
CoC – Real World Testing – (§ 170.405(b)(1) and (2)) Submit initial plan and initial results submission |
Plan: December 15, 2020 Results: March 15, 2022 |
Initial Plan: Initial RWT plans (i.e., 2021 RWT plans) may be submitted through March 15, 2021 Initial Results: Initial RWT results from the 2021 performance year may be |
Begin annual cycle 1 year later Initial Plan: December 15, 2021 Initial Results: |
3 Note that for the Content and Manner Exception, in § 171.301(a), for the period before October 6, 2022, the definition of EHI is limited to, at a minimum, the data elements represented in the USCDI standard; and, for the period on and after Oct 6, 2022, EHI is defined as it is in § 171.102. These dates reflect the extension from May 2, 2022, which was the compliance date included in the ONC Cures Act Final Rule. These dates are discussed in more detail in section II.A.1.
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