What’s the news: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced that it is increasing the resources it is giving to inspectors to penalize health care entities that knowingly restrict patients from engaging in their care by blocking their access, exchange and use of electronic health information—a practice commonly called information blocking.
The AMA applauded the effort.
“With decisive enforcement and AMA’s continued advocacy, information blocking can finally give way to the data liquidity patients deserve and physicians need,” said AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD. “Once a tolerated industry practice, information blocking is now a target for real accountability. And that means better, faster, safer care for patients.”
The 21st Century Cures Act promotes interoperability so that physicians and patients can easily access and share medical information. Greater access improves patient care, strengthens communication among care teams, and reduces documentation and information-retrieval burdens that hinder physicians’ ability to deliver high-quality care.
The enforcement rules for the act are not new—they were finalized in 2024. They let the department investigate and penalize violators, allowing the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) to impose civil monetary penalties of up to $1 million per violation against EHR developers or others that engage in information blocking.
The HHS-OIG can also take action against developers with products certified under the Assistant Secretary of Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP/ONC) certification program. Developers can have their certifications terminated and be banned from the certification program.
What is new is that HHS said it “will take an active enforcement stance.”
“Patients must have unfettered access to their health information as guaranteed by law,” said Acting Inspector General Juliet T. Hodgkins. “HHS-OIG will deploy all available authorities to investigate and hold violators accountable. We are committed to enforcing the law and protecting patients’ access to health information.”
From AI implementation to digital health adoption and EHR usability, the AMA is fighting to make technology work for physicians, ensuring that it is an asset to doctors.
Why it matters: Information blocking harms patients and the AMA for years has advocated for real, enforceable consequences for anyone who profits from digital roadblocks in care delivery. The AMA says HHS’ enforcement policy is a “critical step toward making the promise of interoperability real in exam rooms and at hospital bedsides—not just on paper.”
Also, patient safety suffers when patients can’t access test results, progress notes, discharge summaries or other essential information because of artificial technical or legal barriers, according to the AMA.
Delays in care multiply. And duplicative testing and fragmented communication drain physicians’ time, raise costs and increase burnout.
"Information blocking is not just a technical nuisance. It’s a direct threat to safe, coordinated, high-quality care," Dr. Mukkamala said. "This enforcement framework is the clarity physicians and patients have been waiting for. We welcome this step and will work with HHS to ensure swift, even-handed enforcement that ends portal runarounds, reduces phone-and-fax scavenger hunts, and gets complete records into the EHR in time to support real-time decision making.”
The increased resources for enforcement sends a clear message that obstructing appropriate data sharing will no longer be tolerated. The AMA is urging HHS to prioritize actions against EHR developers that are repeat offenders and health information networks that use technical, legal or financial levers to thwart the exchange of information. The AMA says developers should be terminated from certification if warranted.
The AMA also urges developers and networks to become compliant with the rules, fix known barriers quickly and support physicians and patients with standards-based exchange of health information.
The AMA continues to urge HHS to deregulate complex, unnecessary and burdensome policies.
Learn more: Physicians should document incidents and report suspected blocking through the ASTP/ONC information-blocking portal. The portal, though the end of August, had already fielded more than 1,300 reports of potential information-blocking instances. The AMA says HHS should make the process easy and offer explicit protection for physicians and staff who report blocking so clinicians can speak up without fear of retaliation.
The ASTP/ONC has educational resources related to information blocking.
The AMA has a summary of the June 2024 final rule (PDF) and further information-blocking resources (PDF) are in included in the AMA Patient Access Playbook.
Physicians can find a two-part explanation of the basics of information blocking (PDF) to help them understand what information blocking is, when information can be withheld and how they can comply with information-blocking regulations (PDF).
