Eight industry organizations pool resources, offering a multitude of materials to help healthcare organizations prepare for compliance.
Tick tock. A crucial IT countdown is in progress, with long-anticipated information blocking rules going into effect on April 5. To help organizations prepare, eight prominent industry groups have pooled their efforts to launch the Information Blocking Resource Center, a free online resource packed with helpful guidelines and documents.
The Center serves as a reference tool to educate and assist provider organizations subject to the information blocking rules implemented by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
The online tool was made available through College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Public Policy. It offers links to regulatory overviews, documents, articles, cheat sheets, guides, webinars, and other documents submitted by the eight organizations. The center also features resources released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), which announced its own initiative earlier this month.
Materials about the following topics are available:
- Information blocking actors
- Information blocking compliance
- Information blocking and COVID-19
- Information blocking and mental health/substance abuse
- Information blocking education
- Information blocking exceptions
- Information blocking overview
- Federal resources
- Patient resources
In addition to CHIME, organizations participating in this initiative include the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), American Medical Association (AMA), American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), American Psychiatric Association (APA), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), and Premier Inc.
Mandy Roth is the innovations editor at HealthLeaders.