Faced with an imminent Oct. 6 deadline to comply with federal rules on information sharing, 10 major healthcare organizations are asking the government for more time.

Health care industry groups have sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services asking for a one-year delay. Groups include the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, American Essential Hospitals, and the Executive College of Health Information Management (CHIME).

“Based on the ever-accumulating feedback from our members, it is clear that both healthcare providers, clinicians, and vendors are not fully prepared for the Oct. 6 deadline,” the letter said.

“Henceforth, we are asking HHS to extend the information blocking compliance deadline for one year, including October 6, and to alert providers/clinicians to corrective action before imposing financial incentives or initiating formal action.” We respectfully request that you consider both the use of your communications and the investigation.”

CHIME, which helped draft the letter, said the organization remains a proponent of information sharing. CHIME President and CEO Russ Branzell said while organizations are doing their best to comply, many will miss the deadline.

“While CHIME members remain a trusted partner to patients and maintain a dedication to protecting their ability to access their medical records, we are committed to ensuring that providers fully understand these important policies. It is clear that more time is needed in the statement: “There was not enough guidance on best practices and potential enforcement.”

The federal government defines information blocking as efforts to deny or interfere with the access, sharing, or use of patient electronic medical information. Governments are pushing to facilitate the exchange of information between health systems, insurers and patients to improve outcomes.

As of August 31, the Federal Office of the Coordination of Health Information Technology reported receiving 452 allegations of potential information blockages. Most complaints come from patients. More than 80% of complaints (371 out of 452) involve accusations that health care providers block access to health information.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in March that most complaints involved health care providers. I warned you that it would be like this.

In a video address to a HIMSS conference, Becerra said she was waiting to hear about a biopsy and complained about a patient who was told the results were available, but the doctor was out of town and the patient had yet to receive the results. could not get

In a letter to the health sector, CHIME and other health care groups stated that the main obstacle to compliance was “the pervasive inability to support access, exchange and use of EHI (electronic health information). “Being.” There is no clear definition of EHI and the technical infrastructure is lacking to support secure exchanges. ”

Healthcare organizations have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with physician burnout reaching an all-time high, according to a recent AMA survey. CHIME argued that sticking to deadlines only increased stress for many overworked medical teams.

Healthcare systems interpret in different ways what data must be shared and what is subject to exceptions. Some areas of confusion contain information about substance use and mental health, the letter said.

Even large providers are confused, but smaller providers are more likely to be confused, the health group said in a letter.

Smaller healthcare systems also rely on electronic medical record vendors for compliance, but hundreds of smaller healthcare information technology vendors aren’t ready to meet the deadline, CHIME said. Vendors have a deadline to provide the required upgrades of December 31, 2022, approximately three months after the deadline for providers to comply.

In addition to extending the deadline, the health group called on the government to set more training and education efforts, including those aimed at medium and small providers.