With info blocking rules, concerns for patient privacy, small practices

Healthcare organizations have raised concerns about the interoperability and information-blocking final rules from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The rules call for wider use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable consumers to access their healthcare data and transfer it to other organizations or integrate with smartphone apps. However, organizations are concerned about the lack of oversight of third-party vendors and the risk to patient privacy. There are also concerns about the implementation costs for healthcare IT vendors and small providers.