{"id":140906,"date":"2025-09-08T04:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/140906\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T04:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:40:09","slug":"hhs-announces-crackdown-on-blocking-health-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/140906\/","title":{"rendered":"HHS Announces Crackdown on Blocking Health Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced<\/a> that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has directed HHS to boost resources dedicated to stopping the practice of information blocking. HHS will actively enforce measures against healthcare entities that hinder patients\u2019 engagement in their care by blocking access, exchange, and use of electronic health information, the press release stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation blocking is defined as a practice that is likely to interfere with the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information, except as required by law or specified in one of nine information blocking exceptions that HHS carved out,\u201d Healthcare Info Security\u2019s<\/a> Marianne Kolbasuk McGee explained. \u201cExperts said that HHS’ information blocking enforcement push appears to mesh with the administration’s other recent so-called, “make health technology great again”\u00a0initiative<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpowering individuals to take control of their health is a key element of Secretary Kennedy\u2019s Make America Healthy Again promise, which requires them to have easy access to their electronic health information, either through zero-cost access through their healthcare providers or their chosen health apps,\u201d Steve Alder wrote for The HIPAA Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 authorizes the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy\/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP\/ONC) and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) to take enforcement actions against those who block patient information and prevent future violations. As a result, ASTP\/ONC, the primary federal agency responsible for coordinating nationwide efforts to implement and utilize advanced health information technology, and the OIG, the main investigative division of HHS, will take leading roles in this initiative, HHS announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take appropriate action against any health care actors who are found to be blocking health data for patients, caregivers, providers, health innovators, and others,\u201d Deputy Secretary of HHS Jim O\u2019Neill said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHHS-OIG will deploy all available authorities to investigate and hold violators accountable. We are committed to enforcing the law and protecting patients\u2019 access to health information,\u201d Acting Inspector General Juliet T. Hodgkins said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cASTP can terminate a certified health IT developer\u2019s certifications under the Health IT Certification Program for information blocking in violation of ASTP\u2019s health IT certification requirements,\u201d lawyers with McDermott, Will and Shulte wrote in a detailed post<\/a> on their website. They recommend that certified health IT developers and healthcare providers review certified API practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-140906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}