It has been more than a year since HHS proposed a set of rules to improve electronic healthcare data interoperability among payers, providers and patients. With the rules expected to roll out later this month, healthcare providers and payers will be required to implement open data-sharing technology to improve access to patient information. The rules require health plans to offer patients and clinicians access to their medical claims and health information, but providers will also be on the hook to increase patient access; as non-compliant physicians will be included in a public report that consumers could reference when selecting a provider. Here at Aria, these proposed rules have been a hot topic of conversation for a couple of our clients in particular.

Interoperability has been a priority and pain point in the healthcare IT space for years, but when ONC started enforcing the long-awaited information-blocking rule in early April 2021, it became mission critical for the industry – and for Aria client Life Image.

Interoperability is a consistently hot topic in healthcare, and as a PR firm specializing in healthcare IT thought leadership PR and marketing, we often find ourselves thinking and writing about its potential industry impact.

It has been a whirlwind few weeks in the healthcare industry (and the whole country) between the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election. However, we shouldn’t let this news totally overshadow another important headline in the health IT space: “ONC pushes back compliance dates for info-blocking rule.”