{"id":9110,"date":"2021-09-01T15:08:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T15:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordcorp.com\/21st-century-cures-act-affects-on-health-information\/"},"modified":"2023-10-19T07:54:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T07:54:25","slug":"21st-century-cures-act-affects-on-health-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oxfordcorp.com\/es\/insights\/blog\/21st-century-cures-act-affects-on-health-information\/","title":{"rendered":"The 21st Century Cures Act Affects on Health Information"},"content":{"rendered":"

21st<\/sup> Century Cures Act Affects on Health Information<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 21st<\/sup> Century Cures Act will affect many components of the healthcare industry, including patients, providers, equipment vendors, and software vendors.1<\/sup> Issued as a final rule in March 2020, the 21st<\/sup> Century Cures Act was initially signed into law on December 13, 2016, by President Obama. While the act attempts to accelerate research and product development, it also emphasizes improving patient care with the use of interoperability, EHRs, and patient access to information.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) final rule creates a focus on advancing interoperability and limiting data blocking practices to optimize the flow of information sharing.1<\/sup> Interoperability is the accessibility of electronic healthcare data to both patient and provider, regardless of location. This law attempts to create greater interoperability by having ONC assist public-private partnerships, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other federal agencies in building an exchange framework and relationships between health information networks across the nation, developing a national health information network.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

In addition to interoperability, the 21st<\/sup> Century Cures Act puts the patient first and enables them to control their healthcare and health information. For patients, this means they should have easy access to their healthcare information through various types of software, including smartphones and apps. Although the patient will be able to use various applications to access their health information, it will be highly secure, ensuring the privacy of the patient\u2019s data.3<\/sup> Also, this act will expand the patients\u2019 ability to make choices concerning their healthcare. By using health technology, the transparency of healthcare costs and demonstration of healthcare outcomes can be achieved. In addition, this provides patients the ability to shop for quality care within a price range.<\/p>\n

The 21st<\/sup> Century Cures Act requires healthcare providers to allow patient access to health information through various applications while prohibiting the blocking of data.\u00a0 It also requires transparency of costs and healthcare outcomes. Overall, the 21st Century Cures Act attempts to balance the patient and provider while maintaining privacy and security to promote access to healthcare information in determining health care cost and quality.<\/p>\n

What Does This Mean for You?<\/strong><\/h3>\n