HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)

See the following -

Data Blocking Hampers Interoperability, ONC Says

Greg Slabodkin | Health Data Management | April 10, 2015

According to ONC, complaints and other evidence described in the 39-page report “suggest that some persons and entities are interfering with the exchange or use of electronic health information in ways that frustrate the goals of the HITECH Act and undermine broader healthcare reforms.” ONC’s report provides criteria for identifying and distinguishing electronic health information blocking from other barriers to interoperability, and details current and proposed actions...

Read More »

EHR Business Environment Must Change to Achieve Interoperability

Greg Slabodkin | Health Data Management | February 4, 2015

The main challenges for the nation’s health IT interoperability are not technical but business related. That’s the word from former National Coordinators for Health IT speaking in a panel session on Tuesday at ONC’s Annual Meeting in Washington. Farzad Mostashari, M.D., former National Coordinator for HIT and currently CEO of start-up Aledade which partners with independent primary care physicians, warned that business practices among some electronic health records vendors are inhibiting the sharing of health information by restricting information exchange with users of other EHR products.

Read More »

EHR Data 'Blocking' Hobbles HIT, Says ONC

John Commins | Health Leaders Media | April 13, 2015

Technology vendors, hospitals, and health systems restrict data access under the guise of security and confidentiality, but it can be challenging to identify and differentiate information-blocking from more benign impediments, says an ONC report.

Read More »

Fed Advisors Say Data Blocking not Hindering Interoperability

Greg Slabodkin | Health Data Management | August 26, 2015

the task force’s observation flies in the face of an April 2015 report to Congress from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT which highlighted the problem of electronic health information blocking, drawing attention to how both provider and vendor “bad actors” are interfering with data exchange. In its report, ONC argued that some EHR vendors are preventing the exchange of health information with competitors and how some providers engage in information blocking to control referrals and enhance their market dominance over competitors.

Read More »

Feds Seek To Educate Patients On Info Sharing

David F. Carr | Information Week | September 17, 2013

Using a combination of guidelines and open-source software, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is trying to encourage healthcare organizations to obtain "meaningful consent" as part of the process of sharing patient information online.

Read More »

FTC, ONC put vendors on notice

Mike Miliard | Healthcare IT News | October 10, 2014

The Federal Trade Commission has some news for health IT vendors whose zeal for competitive marketshare outweighs their willingness to share data: they're watching, and will step in where necessary. "We are working with ONC staff to identify potential competition issues relating to health IT platforms and standards, market concentration, conduct by market participants, and the ability of health IT purchasers to make informed buying decisions," wrote FTC officials in a blog post this week.

Read More »

HHS appoints DeSalvo to head ONC

Diana Manos | Government Health IT | December 19, 2013

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday morning that Karen DeSalvo, MD, City of New Orleans Health Commissioner, will take over the helm of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Read More »

State-wide Health Information Exchange (HIE) Implementation Activities

Stay abreast of the latest status of the State Health Information Exchanges (SHIE) Program, as reported on the Office  of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) web site. They have posted the figures on the implementation of state-wide health information exchanges (HIE) – for both directed exchange and query-based exchange. You can also find out more about HIE solutions at the upcoming "2013 Health Data Exchange & Interoperability Summit" being held October 30-31, 2013, in Washington D.C. Read More »