Technology companies and other stakeholders submitted a letter urging the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to finalize new rules creating additional opportunities for data sharing.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) both released proposed rules related to data sharing. ONC’s proposed rule would require the adoption of standardized application programming interfaces (APIs) and restrict information blocking tactics. CMS’s proposed rule requires hospitals to provide patients with their claims. Final versions of both rules are currently at the OMB, the final step of the regulatory process before a rule is released, since last fall.

While the proposed rules have support from major tech companies and other stakeholder groups, the interoperability rules have received significant pushback from EHR vendors and the American Medical Association with concerns about the privacy of the personal electronic health information.