The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalizes the HTI-5 rule, which adjusts the criteria used by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) for health IT certification. Across the coverage, the rule is described as reducing the number of certification requirements and revising additional criteria, with the stated effect of making certification easier to achieve.
Both outlets note that the final rule also defers action related to information blocking. While HHS includes changes aimed at streamlining aspects of the certification framework, it does not fully move forward on information blocking proposals that had been under consideration. The two accounts differ mainly in emphasis: one focuses on the specific scale of ONC certification criteria changes (cuts and revisions), while the other highlights that HHS streamlines certification but significantly scaled back the broader overhaul concept it had proposed earlier, especially compared with its initial plan.
