The 21st Century Cures Act

The Cures Act includes provisions to streamline drug and medical device delivery, promote research on serious illnesses, address the opioid crisis, and boost mental health services.

In addition, it seeks to ease regulatory burdens associated with EHR and health IT use.

The Cures Act also contains provisions geared toward advancing interoperability and requiring health IT developers, HIEs/networks, and healthcare providers not to engage in information blocking — or preventing or interfering with the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI).

There are in fact two Final Rules, one produced by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the other by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

These rules — based on the Cures Act’s interoperability, patient access, and information blocking provisions — guide industry members such as providers, payers, and technology vendors in their design of health IT systems.

The ONC Final Rule lays out regulations to prevent information blocking by healthcare providers, health IT developers, HIEs, and health information networks.

Information blocking is a practice that is likely to interfere with access, exchange, or use of EHI. Such a practice is considered information blocking except when required by law or specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a “reasonable and necessary activity.”

Yes, the ONC provides eight information blocking exceptions. These are categories of the “reasonable and necessary” activities that do not constitute information blocking, given certain conditions are met. They include the following:

1. Preventing harm
2. Privacy
3. Security
4. Infeasibility
5. Health IT performance
6. Content and manner
7. Fees
8. Licensing

The Cures Act and information blocking provisions apply to ALL healthcare providers (regardless of participation in regulatory reporting programs), health IT developers, and HIEs/networks.

As a Greenway client, you will need to upgrade to Prime Suite v21 or Intergy v21 as soon as these versions become available later this year — and no later than Dec. 31, 2022. These versions will be the required releases to be on a Cures Edition EHR.

Although it’s not required, we recommend you upgrade to Prime Suite v18.30 or higher and Intergy v12.50 or higher. That way, we can start onboarding your data to the new Enterprise Data Hub (EDH) for a more seamless transition to Prime Suite v21 and Intergy v21 later this year.