HHS has issued seven letters of potential nonconformity to companies suspected of illegally blocking access to electronic health information, Nextgov/FCW reported Oct. 19.
Thomas Keane, MD, ONC national coordinator for health IT, disclosed the previously unreported figure Oct. 15 at the ADAPT conference in Santa Fe, N.M. He did not name the companies that received the letters.
Dr. Keane said most recipients have acknowledged the problem and committed to changing their data-sharing practices. HHS said in June it had begun issuing notices of nonconformity, but had not disclosed how many.
The 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 prohibits information blocking and allows civil penalties of up to $1 million per violation for health IT developers and health information exchanges; providers face federal program disincentives instead. HHS has not yet announced concrete enforcement actions under those rules. Dr. Keane said his office is working with the HHS Office of Inspector General, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission on enforcement.
Dr. Keane said his office would rather first help health IT developers and other regulated entities understand the rules and fix their practices. “If not, we take an enforcement posture,” he said.
Separately, CMS has held two troubleshooting calls that bring together patients, EHR vendors and providers to resolve stalled record requests, said Amy Gleason, CMS deputy administrator and administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service. Ms. Gleason said the calls have gotten patient data moving.
The letters are the latest step in an enforcement push HHS launched in September 2025, when the department pledged to devote more resources to stopping information blocking.
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