ONC calls out information blockers

Having received many complaints in recent months about vendors and providers engaging in information blocking, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is "becoming increasingly concerned about these practices, which devalue taxpayer investments in health IT and are fundamentally incompatible with efforts to transform the nation’s health system."

That's according to National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, and Jodi G. Daniel, ONC's director of the Office of Policy Planning, writing in a blog post that calls out "persons or entities (who) knowingly and unreasonably interfere with the exchange or use of electronic health information."

...In their blog post, DeSalvo and Daniel write that "the full extent of the information blocking problem is difficult to assess, primarily because health IT developers impose contractual restrictions that prohibit customers from reporting or even discussing costs, restrictions and other relevant details."...