Media Inquiries
For general media inquiries, please contact media@hhs.gov.
An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today released a final rule that establishes disincentives for health care providers that have committed information blocking. This final rule exercises the Secretary’s authority under the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) to establish “disincentives” for health care providers who engage in practices that the health care providers knew were unreasonable and were likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI), except as required by law or covered by a regulatory exception.
“This final rule is designed to ensure we always have access to our own health information and that our care teams have the benefit of this information to guide their decisions. With this action, HHS is taking a critical step toward a health care system where people and their health providers have access to their electronic health information,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “When health information can be appropriately accessed and exchanged, care is more coordinated and efficient, allowing the health care system to better serve patients. But we must always take the necessary actions to ensure patient privacy and preferences are protected – and that’s exactly what this rule does.”
HHS has established the following disincentives for health care providers found by the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) to have committed information blocking and referred by OIG to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):
This HHS final rule complements OIG’s final rule from June 2023 that established penalties for information blocking actors other than health care providers, as identified in the Cures Act (health information technology (IT) developers of certified health IT or other entities offering certified health IT, health information exchanges, and health information networks). If OIG determines that any of these individuals or entities committed information blocking, they may be subject to a civil monetary penalty of up to $1 million per violation.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and CMS will host a joint information session about the final rule on June 26, 2024 at 2pm ET. More information can be found at healthit.gov/informationblocking and via ONC’s X account, @ONC_HealthIT.
Receive the latest updates from the Secretary, Blogs, and News Releases
For general media inquiries, please contact media@hhs.gov.