HHS announces delay of major parts of its interoperability rules

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, HHS announced a delay in its implementation and enforcement of a number of important provisions of recently-released interoperability regulations. For example, the requirement that hospitals provide practices patient data on admissions, discharge, and transfer is delayed six additional months, going into effect one year after implementation of the final rule. In addition, the EHR vendors have an additional three months to comply with the requirement to support patient access to their data via third-party apps. The clock for implementation of the final rules does not start until they are published in the Federal Register, expected to occur early next month. HHS’ Office of Inspector General also unveiled its proposed rule to impose financial penalties on certain entities that violate the information-blocking rules.