ONC released a Final Rule earlier this year to enable all provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act, as applicable to its ONC 2015 Edition EHR Certification Program, including significant technology changes.
The Final Rule seeks changes around FHIR implementation, EHI export requirements and information blocking provisions. Complying with these changes, especially around interoperability and FHIR, present complex clinical, operational, and financial challenges to healthcare providers and health IT vendors. Health IT vendors will need to have HL7 FHIR API, USCDI datasets and other 21st Century Cures required criteria rolled out in the immediate future, to be eligible for ONC’s Cures Certification Program.