The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new steps to strengthen the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement™ (TEFCA®), the nationwide network that helps patients and healthcare providers securely share electronic health information.
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Supporting the adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide, standards-based health information exchange to improve health care nationwide. Here is what is happening at the ONC including new LEAP funding opportunity.
Fosters Innovation for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program – A new proposal from the CMS would establish a permanent framework for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, creating a more transparent and sustainable process for lowering drug costs for millions of Medicare beneficiaries.
This rule, finalized by the HHS, through CMS, the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury along with the Office of Personnel Management, directly addresses bottlenecks by helping to reduce the number of ineligible disputes entering the system at a lower cost to payers and providers.
The 2026 Quality Payment Program (QPP) exception applications are now available through December 31, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET. There are 2 types of exception applications that allow participants to indicate why they can’t report data for one or more Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance categories.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, through its Health Tech Ecosystem, is advancing its electronic prior authorization efforts through a newly established Electronic Prior Authorization Acceleration initiative to address key challenges and drive solutions ahead of 2027 requirements.
On April 8, CMS updated its Quality Payment Program Participation Status Tool based on the fourth snapshot of Alternative Payment Model data. The fourth snapshot includes data from Medicare Part B claims with dates of service between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025.
CMS has released the 2026 CMS Interoperability Standards and Prior Authorization for Drugs proposed rule (CMS-0062-P), continuing its efforts to improve electronic prior authorization so patients and providers can benefit from a more expeditious, transparent and reliable process.
CMS is extending the initial application deadline to May 15, 2026, so that more organizations can participate in ACCESS when it launches on July 5, 2026; Medicare enrollment is required for participation but not to apply.