{{{{{On February 11, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) both issued proposed rules to fulfill statutory requirements in the 21st Century Cures Act. The proposed rules seeks to improve the ability of health care providers to transmit patient health information to each other in an interoperable format, improve the ability of patients to access their personal electronic health data, and prevent healthcare systems from engaging in “information blocking.” Most of the proposed rule’s provisions will take effect by 2020.

CMS is seeking to leverage its programmatic authority over Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, state Medicaid programs [both fee-for-service (FFS) and managed care], Children’s Health Insurance Plans (CHIP) (including FFS and managed care), and Qualified Health Insurance Plan (QHP) issuers in the health insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Some of the provisions build on existing CMS efforts such as the Blue Button 2.0 (an app allowing access to data of an operating system, application or other service).}}}}}}