For Immediate Release
Contact: Kelly Broadway
kbroadway@health-innovation.org
Washington, DC – Ahead of the Senate HELP Committee hearing, “Transforming Health Care with Data: Improving Patient Outcomes Through Next-Generation Care,” the Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) is urging Congress to finally enforce information blocking rules and come to a consensus on a risk-based approach to artificial intelligence (AI).
HIA looks forward to hearing from Assistant Secretary Keane on how the administration will take action to spur AI adoption in health care, and importantly, break down the fraudulent barriers that so-called “gatekeepers” have put in place to stop healthcare information sharing, so that only they can benefit.
Congress should hold ASTP/ONC accountable for the enforcement authority that Congress already gave it. Compliance on paper is not interoperability in practice. We urge ASTP/ONC to move from tolerance to enforcement – penalizing information blocking dressed as compliance while remaining functionally impenetrable for those who need access most. Since the 21st Century Cures Act granted enforcement powers, ASTP/ONC has received more than 1,400 information blocking complaints – the number of publicized enforcement actions is zero.
Large health systems have spent years checking compliance boxes while quietly maintaining the walls that keep patient data siloed, revenues protected, and competitors locked out. That is information blocking in practice, despite what it may be called on paper.
Under no circumstances should a patient be denied access to their own MRI or parents be told they cannot get their child’s blood work. No one should have to jump through countless bureaucratic hurdles and delays to get basic health care information about themselves or their families. We support the administration’s efforts to make the health care system work better for patients, but it’s time to put the law into action and enforce info blocking.