AAEM Letter in Response to RFI on the 21st Century Cures Act

Dear Representatives DeGette and Buchson,

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is the specialty society of board-certified emergency physicians. We are committed to the principle of fair and equitable practice environments to allow emergency physicians to provide the highest quality of patient care. Founded in 1993, AAEM represents over 8,000 emergency physicians and medical students across the United States.

Our letter responds to your request for information (RFI) on the 21st Century Cures Act (The Act) and specifically addresses the information blocking provision of The Act, which passed in 2016. The RFI asks what additional reforms, support mechanisms, or incentives are needed to enhance or improve the effectiveness of the steps already taken, including any structural reform to agencies, offices, or programs involved.

The Act established two primary areas of prohibited information blocking. First, the Cures Act defines information blocking as a practice that is likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information. It also specifies that for a health care provider to be deemed to have engaged in information blocking, such provider must know that a practice is unreasonable and is likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information. Second, the Cures Act authorizes the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to investigate information blocking claims. Physicians (and others) whom the OIG determines to have committed information blocking are subject to disincentives that are spelled out in rulemaking.