The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced in a March 9, 2020, news release that it had “finalized two transformative rules that will give patients unprecedented safe, secure access to their health data. Interoperability has been pursued by multiple administrations and numerous laws, and today, these rules finally deliver on giving patients true access to their healthcare data to make informed healthcare decisions and better manage their care.”[1]
HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)[2] and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)[3] issued the two rules that implement interoperability and patient access provisions of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), notes the HHS news release.