10 ways your practice could be information blocking without knowing it

Federal regulators spent years warning medical practices about information blocking. Now they're counting complaints. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has logged 2,450 possible information blocking claims since the rules took effect in April 2021. HHS has said it will take an active enforcement stance against health care entities that keep patients from their electronic health information.

For physicians, the penalty isn't a fine. It's a hit to Medicare pay and to reputation. A clinician the HHS Office of Inspector General finds to have committed information blocking loses meaningful EHR user status for the performance period. ONC will also publicly post the provider's name and address along with what they did.

Most practices aren't hiding records on purpose. The trouble starts with habits that predate the rules: a hold on lab results until the physician signs off, a front desk script that routes every records request to a fax machine, a fee schedule nobody has revisited. Here are 10 places to look.