HHS Steps Back On NwHIN Governance

HHS, through its Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has decided to punt on its previous drive to regulate the proposed nationwide health information network. In May, the ONC published a formal request for information—chiefly a list of more than 60 questions—that gave a sense of government regulators' thoughts on how the national network might be regulated.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress charged the ONC with establishing a "governance mechanism for the nationwide health information network." But even that initial request for information received pushback from multiple organizations in more than 140 formal comments the ONC received...