The federal government is making progress toward its longtime goal of punishing health IT companies blocking the flow of health information, according to Dr. Thomas Keane, the assistant secretary for technology policy and national coordinator for health information technology.
The agency in charge of overseeing U.S. health technology has shared complaints about companies that might be engaging in information blocking with the HHS’ Office of Inspector General, and the HHS OIG is investigating them, Keane said during a Senate subcommittee hearing Thursday.
It’s a significant step for the agency, called the ASTP/ONC, which views punishing information blocking as crucial to encourage the free sharing of electronic data between patients, providers and IT companies.
The 21st Century Cures Act, passed in 2016, banned information blocking. But nearly a decade later, the government has yet to levy any penalties or enforcement actions.
The HHS has blamed vagueness in the 21st Century Cures Act for making it difficult for regulators to pursue allegations. Only in 2023 did the HHS finalize penalties for health IT vendors. It took another year before the department announced punishments for providers.
Complaints of information blocking have stacked up in the meantime. Since 2021, the ASTP/ONC has received more than 1,500 allegations of information blocking in the public-facing complaint portal on the agency’s website, according to Keane.
“We are a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and information blocking is unacceptable,” Keane said during the hearing.
Last month, the ASTP/ONC said it was beginning to issue notices to health IT developers accused of information blocking. The announcement followed a warning from the HHS in the fall of an impending crackdown on information blocking, with officials saying they would increase resources and deploy “all available authorities” to investigate potential violators.
Consequences for actors found information blocking could be steep, including fines of up to $1 million per violation for health IT developers and networks. The ASTP/ONC could also terminate certain health IT certifications. Meanwhile, providers could lose out on Medicare payments.
After sending notices of potential nonconformity to alleged information blockers, ASTP/ONC will wait for a response before determining if they may be required to submit to a corrective action plan, according to Keane.
“We work with the assumption at ASTP that everybody wants to be a good actor in the market,” the national coordinator said during the hearing. “When we find that people are thought by their exchange partners to be information blocking, we inform them. We discuss with them what we think they're doing incorrectly, and if it comes to it, then we issue a notice of nonconformity and we refer the case to the Office of Inspector General.”
Keane declined to comment in the hearing if information blocking cases referred to the OIG were moving forward. A spokesperson for the ASTP/ONC declined to share companies that may have been referred to the OIG. The OIG also declined to comment.
During the Thursday hearing, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee said they were ready for enforcement actions to be levied.
“I certainly do think there’s bad actors out there,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. “I do think we need to start holding some of these companies accountable.”
