Most Care Orgs Unprepared for Cures Act Interoperability Requirements

While 61 percent of healthcare organizations have invested resources into meeting the interoperability requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act, only 36 percent report having the necessary data quality programs in place to do so, according to a new survey conducted by Big Village commissioned by health IT vendor Verato.

The survey collected data from 197 executives from hospitals, health systems, and healthcare payers who have an active role in patient data management at their organizations.

The 21st Century Cures Act set forth provisions for the secure exchange of health data among payers, providers, and consumers, including the establishment of an information-blocking rule finalized earlier this year.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a proposed rule to establish information blocking disincentives for hospitals and health systems.

Under the proposed rule, if the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds an eligible hospital has participated in information blocking, that organization may be limited for incentives through the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program, the Quality Payment Program, and the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

When asked about their readiness for specific provisions of the Cures Act, less than half of respondents said their organizations are fully compliant in these areas:

• Sending electronic notifications of patient activity to other healthcare organizations (44 percent)
• Obtaining patient consent and authorization to share data with external sources (46 percent)
• Maintaining technical infrastructure that ensures secure information exchange (43 percent)
• Sharing patient-level information with patients and other healthcare organizations (43 percent)
• Receiving patient-level information from other healthcare organizations and systems (43 percent)

The survey also found that the majority of healthcare executives (98 percent) expect an increase in data requests from other organizations, and 97 percent predict an increase in data coming into their organization from external sources.

With this flood of data, 57 percent of respondents said that patient matching errors will lead to a “healthcare crisis” within the next five to 10 years.

According to AHIMA, the current prevalence of duplicate records in most hospitals hovers around 10 percent. In health systems with multiple facilities, the rate can be up to 20 percent.