Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and HHS Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources (acting) Lisa Molyneux wrote in a post on August 9 that continued implementation of the HHS Health IT Alignment Policy is a critical pathway to achieving the federal health IT vision of a health system.
The Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP) has been collaborating with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources (ASFR) to establish and oversee a consistent approach to ensure that health IT requirements in grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and policy and regulatory actions align with HHS-adopted data standards. HHS adopted the Health IT Alignment Policy in July of 2022.
Tripathi and Molyneux note that under the Health IT Alignment Policy, ASTP and HHS partners have identified billions of dollars that impact health IT across HHS programs and activities.
Tripathi and Molyneux report that the proposed rule for the HHS Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR): Acquisition of Information Technology; Standards for Health Information Technology has been published in the Federal Register on August 9 for public comment.
“The proposed rule amends and updates the HHSAR to implement requirements to procure health IT that meets standards and implementation specifications adopted by ASTP on behalf of HHS. The proposed rule sets out requirements for all HHS contracts that involve health IT activities to use HHS-adopted health IT standards to promote interoperability across the health system,” Tripathi and Molyneux inform. The proposed rule is available for public comment until October 8, 2024.
