There has been significant progress in interoperability among providers for treatment purposes, and while there is still considerable work to do, we now need to broaden our scope to also focus on payer-provider interoperability. The Interoperability Rules  finalized by our colleagues at CMS have laid down important cornerstones, and we at ONC are continuing to explore complementary infrastructure and policies to advance those efforts.

This episode of Enabling Health Value showcases the National Coordinator for Health IT, Micky Tripathi. He leads the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) – a staff division in the Office of the Secretary for HHS responsible for advancing the federal government’s health IT efforts and catalyzing adoption of secure, interoperable health IT systems across the entire health ecosystem. In addition to his formal role running ONC, Secretary Becerra has tasked Micky with co-leading HHS’ efforts in AI. Prior to joining ONC in January 2021 as our nation’s health IT czar, Micky spent twenty years in the private sector working on EHR implementation, interoperability, and data analytics.

The HTI-1 Final Rule introduces groundbreaking transparency requirements for AI and predictive algorithms used in certified health IT. With ONC-certified health IT supporting the care delivered by more than 96% of hospitals and 78% of office-based physicians, this regulatory approach will have far-reaching effects on the healthcare industry. EHR/EMR vendors must now ensure that clinical users can access a consistent, baseline set of information about the algorithms they use to support decision-making. This information will help users assess algorithms for fairness, appropriateness, validity, effectiveness, and safety (FAVES).

This National Minority Health Month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is highlighting its commitment to health equity for all. Achieving health equity requires a systemic change in health care. We need to make sure that communities that have been historically underserved, under-resourced, marginalized, or adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality have equal access and experiences with their health care.

Following its previous Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, the Health and Human Services Department is looking to continue the effort with its latest plan, which covers the next six years. HHS is now open for public comment. Officials are hoping to continue improving the exchange and availability of electronic health information. They also have some new goals in mind. Federal News Network’s Eric White got the chance to speak to one HHS official: Dustin Charles, Policy Specialist in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.