Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

The recently finalized data sharing mandates set to go into effect on Nov. 2 have been rescheduled for next year. The feds decided to give providers more time to adapt their IT and refine their policies in light of the public health emergency (PHE).

Then: Last May, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published a final rule in the Federal Register on IT provisions mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act and with a compliance due date of Nov. 2, 2020.

Now: On Nov. 4, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) published an interim final rule in the Federal Register that extended the compliance time frames to accommodate the healthcare industry as it wrestles with the pandemic. The update impacts “certain requirements related to information blocking and Conditions and Maintenance of Certification (CoC/MoC) requirements,” HHS said in a release.

Five of the provisions, which include those related to information blocking, are now scheduled for a compliance date of April 5, 2021. The other requirements have staggered ramp-up time frames ranging from Dec. 31, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2023.

Resource: Review the interim final rule at: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/11/04/2020-24376/information-blocking-and-the-onc-health-it-certification-program-extension-of-compliance-dates-and.