The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a final rule establishing the statutory penalties created by the 21st Century Cures Act information blocking requirements.

If the OIG determines that an individual or entity has committed information blocking, they may be subject up to a $1 million penalty per violation. The final rule does not impose new information blocking requirements.

Enforcement of the information blocking penalties will begin September 1, 2023, and the OIG will not impose a penalty on information blocking conduct occurring before September 1, 2023.

Specifically, the OIG will investigate cases that “caused potential patient harm,  significantly impacted a provider's ability to care for patients, was of long duration, caused financial loss to Federal health care programs, or other government or private entities, or was performed with actual knowledge.”

According to the HHS, information blocking is a practice by a healthcare professional or healthcare system that is likely to interfere with access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI).

This is certainly a topic that we have been covering over the years on the RosettaHealth blog. For example, we published this deep-dive blog post in 2021 about how to become compliant with the rule.

In 2020, Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project, did a RosettaHealth podcast interview, and discussed the tools that can help aid in compliance. For example, The Sequoia Project is offering an Information Blocking Compliance Boot Camp, as well as a number of compliance resources in the form of free tools, checklists, reports and webinars. 

   RosettaHealth can assist with any health information challenges you might have, book a free consultation with one of our interoperability experts.