HHS Cuts 14 Health-Record Certification Rules — SkimNews
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- HHS removed 14 security, privacy and transparency requirements for electronic health-record vendors on Monday, describing the change as intended to streamline government regulation and support the development of new technologies.
- Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT eliminated 14 of 60 criteria used to certify electronic record-keeping systems and substantially revised seven others in a long-awaited final rule.
- Epic and Oracle sell electronic record-keeping systems certified under the criteria affected by the final rule, making them the named vendor examples in its scope.
- Commenters raised concerns that many of the eliminations and revisions would undermine the security and privacy of sensitive health information and impede efforts to ensure the safety of products relying on artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: Epic and Oracle’s electronic-record products face fewer certification criteria under the 14-of-60 rollback, matching the administration’s stated goal of streamlining regulation. The trade-off is less certification-based scrutiny of sensitive health data and AI-reliant products, precisely the safeguards commenters said the revisions would undermine.
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