HHS Announces Delayed HIT Compliance Deadlines

The Department of Health and Human Services has responded to concerns about compliance dates for healthcare IT with an interim final rule that relaxes those deadlines by nearly half a year. According to the Oct. 29 HHS press release, vendors of health IT systems have until April 5, 2021, to comply with information blocking provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act, a delay some saw as critical due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) had released the final rule March 9, 2020, which in addition to the information blocking provisions included certification requirements for application programming interfaces (APIs). ONC director Don Rucker emphasized that this latest delay does not eliminate the rules requiring greater patient access to their health information, but is intended to allow developers to focus on the pandemic.

In April 2020, the ONC exercised enforcement discretion by adding three months to several of the compliance deadlines included in the March final rule, making the Oct. 29 delay the second such announcement this year. In addition to the delay until April 2021 for the Cures Act’s information blocking provisions, the ONC will allow developers until Dec. 31, 2022, to demonstrate that their software complies with the updated requirements for API functionality.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Inc., (HIMSS) of Chicago, said the announcement allows the health care sector to focus on the pandemic while sustaining a path forward toward greater patient access to their own information. HIMSS stated that the scope of the information blocking provisions will expand in October 2022, prior to which developers will have to demonstrate only that they are providing access to a limited number of elements initially included in the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability. This will allow developers to become more accustomed to these requirements prior to the compliance date of Oct. 6, 2022, when the full scope of a patient’s electronic health information becomes mandatorily accessible to patients.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), also headquartered in Chicago, applauded the delay in an Oct. 29 statement. AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, said the additional delay “is a prudent decision, as the reallocation of resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic has made it challenging for many health information professionals to ensure their institutions are sufficiently in compliance.” Harris thanked ONC “for being cognizant of the realities health information professionals are encountering during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

CMS Resets Two DME Policies

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released two policy changes, one each for competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME), and the other for how items are categorized under the Medicare Part B DME benefit. Of the two, the more immediate impact on patients may be created by the Oct. 27 CMS proposal to classify all continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) as DME, providing broader coverage of CGMs than has been available up to now. At present, Medicare covers these devices only when approved by the FDA for use in making treatment decisions for those with diabetes, such as changes to insulin dosage or to diet.

The policy change would provide coverage for CGMs for more routine considerations, such as potentially hazardous overnight glucose excursions. CMS also made note of the fact that one in every three Medicare beneficiaries suffers from diabetes. The proposed rule would also expand the DME classification of external infusion pumps to permit more in-home use.

The second CMS announcement regarding DME for the week ending Oct. 30 stated that the competitive bidding program would be delayed again for most items. Two items, off-the-shelf (OTS) knee and back braces, will be subject to bidding in 2021, and CMS indicated that the bidding process may save $600 million over the three years of the bidding program for these two items.

The 2021 round of bidding had originally included non-invasive ventilators, a category the agency removed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. OTS back and knee braces were not included in previous bidding programs, but bidding for the other 13 categories was dropped because previous bidding rounds failed to deliver on the anticipated savings.

The American Association for Homecare lent its support to the changes to the bidding program, stating that the program has established a price floor for the 13 devices that will be exempt from bidding year. The statement also recommended that bidding for these products be permanently ended.