POLICY/REGULATION FACT SHEET – The 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule: Enhancing Interoperability and Preventing Information Blocking

POLICY/REGULATION FACT SHEET – The 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule: Enhancing Interoperability and Preventing Information Blocking

The 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule: Enhancing Interoperability and Preventing Information Blocking

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released the 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule in 2020 to enhance electronic health information (EHI) access along with interoperability and information blocking prohibition in healthcare systems (ONC, 2020). The regulatory intent behind this act seeks to empower patients while boosting health data sharing and enhancing medical outcomes by enhancing access to health records alongside transparent Medical IT operations. New rules require Health IT developers serving patients to give free and secure online access to their Electronic Health Information through APIs which enhances patient care coordination and healthcare participation (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).

The implementation of this policy significantly impacts system integration and EHR design. Healthcare organizations should make needed updates to EHR systems to provide secure API access to data by following Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard requirements (HealthIT.gov, 2018). The deployment and monitoring process depends on consistent coordination between IT departments along with EHR vendors and informaticists who need to execute tests and applications of new capabilities that verify certification standards and protect security and privacy requirements.

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The Cures Act improves clinical care through its ability to let providers access complete live patient records thus reducing testing duplication while improving diagnostic accuracy. The availability of health data to patients enables both patient engagements along with decision-making cooperation (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The new policy activates changes in operating procedures because providers must speed up the release of notes and results. Under this arrangement organizations need to make adjustments in communication practices and education to handle patient anxiety stemming from misunderstood results.

The Cures Act compliance requires our organization to establish multiple essential policies. The organization applies an “Open Notes” policy combined with staff patient access instruction and creates an interoperative task force headed by an informaticist to ensure policy adherence. Our organization updated its Health IT systems to use FHIR-based APIs while creating procedures for tracking information blocking events and their correction methods. Regular education regarding data sharing protocols and ethical aspects takes place during each quarter for staff members (HealthIT.gov, 2018). The nurse informaticist is vital during policy transformation efforts because they lead implementation along with staff training and teamwork with IT teams to achieve interoperability targets.

References

HealthIT.gov. (2018b). Meaningful use and MACRA Links to an external site. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/topic/meaningful-use-and-macra/meaningful-use-and-macra

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2020). 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program. https://www.healthit.gov/curesrule/  POLICY/REGULATION FACT SHEET – The 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule: Enhancing Interoperability and Preventing Information Blocking

To Prepare:

Review the Resources on healthcare policy and regulatory/legislative topics related to health and nursing informatics.
Consider the role of the nurse informaticist in relation to a healthcare organization’s compliance with various policies and regulations, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
Research and select one health or nursing informatics policy (within the past 5 years) or regulation for further study.
The Assignment: (1 page not including the title and reference page)

Create a 1-page fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the following:

Briefly and generally explain the policy or regulation you selected.
Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on system implementation.
Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on clinical care, patient/provider interactions, and workflow.
Highlight organizational policies and procedures that are/will be in place at your healthcare organization to address the policy or regulation you selected. Be specific.
Use APA format and include a title page, in-text citations, and reference page.
Use the Turnitin Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.Submit your completed Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet.As a professional nurse, you are expected to apply your expertise to patient care. On occasion, you will also be expected to share that expertise.

With evolving technology and continuous changes to regulations designed to keep up these changes, there is usually a need to share information and expertise to inform colleagues, leadership, patients, and other stakeholders.

In this Assignment, you will study a recent nursing informatics-related healthcare policy, and you will share the relevant details via a fact sheet designed to inform and educate.McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Chapter 8, “Legislative Aspects of Nursing Informatics: HIPAA, HITECH and Beyond” (pp. 161–181)