CHICAGO – October 29, 2020 – “The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) supports efforts from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to ensure that individuals can access, exchange and use electronic health information. However, we welcome ONC’s five-month delay of the compliance deadline for its Information Blocking rule.

“The rule was scheduled to go into effect on November 2, but ONC has delayed this compliance deadline until April 5, 2021. We feel this is a prudent decision, as the reallocation of resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic has made it challenging for many health information professionals to ensure their institutions are sufficiently in compliance by November 2.

“Ensuring that patients have seamless, timely, electronic access to their health information regardless of where that information travels will continue to be a top priority for health information professionals. The five-month delay allows them additional time to see that their institutions’ policies and procedures are in place to fully enable the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information. We thank ONC for being cognizant of the realities health information professionals are encountering during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE
Chief Executive Officer
AHIMA

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About AHIMA
AHIMA is a global nonprofit association of health information (HI) professionals. AHIMA represents professionals who work with health data for more than one billion patient visits each year. AHIMA’s mission of empowering people to impact health drives our members and credentialed HI professionals to ensure that health information is accurate, complete, and available to patients and providers. Our leaders work at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and business, and are found in data integrity and information privacy job functions worldwide.