Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

Question: We keep hearing about open application programming interfaces (APIs). What exactly are they and will they affect our small physician practice?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: Last year, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued intersecting final rules to circumvent patient data blocking and improve health information exchanges (HIEs) between clinicians and organizations.

Historically, open APIs referred to application programming interfaces available publicly online to software developers. Under the ONC Cures Act final rule, the feds aim to tweak this concept and encourage developers seeking certification of their products to design healthcare-related APIs that improve interoperability between providers — even if the clinicians maintain different IT systems and utilize different software.

How this new rule impacts physician practices is a little different. For example, ONC intends open APIs to help with the transfer of data between patients and clinicians, allowing patients to use their own apps to access and request their protected health information (PHI) from their providers. Plus, the best part about these more secure, standardized APIs is that they will make it easier for patients while not requiring any additional effort on the part of the providers, according to ONC guidance.

The rule also promotes competition between certified developers that will benefit clinicians and hospitals with more options that can be adapted to their particular specialty and size.

“The ONC Cures Act final rule calls for open APIs, which encourages secure access to data for applications,” the agency maintains. “The final rule will help ensure these certified APIs are made available in a way that is safe, secure, and affordable. These APIs support innovation in the marketplace for health IT and app developers.”

ONC Cures Act policy requirements and IT implementations have been hindered by COVID-19. Some Conditions of Certifications (CoC) for APIs began on April 5 with real-world provider testing slated to commence on Dec. 15. Other functionality requirements and clinician trials will roll out over the next few years, depending on the pandemic, ONC guidance suggests.

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