On February 14, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), outlined a new model for emergency medical triage, treatment, and transportation services. CMS will offer Medicare reimbursement through the new model to transport patients to hospital emergency departments as well as other destinations appropriate to patient needs, such as primary care physicians and urgent care clinics.

On February 11, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), released proposed rules on appropriate access, exchange, and use of data obtained through electronic health records. ONC’s proposed rules would implement provisions in Title IV of the 21st Century Cures Act, which prohibits improper technical barriers to information exchange, often referred to as “information blocking.”

On January 18, 2019, 38 hospitals filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging a final rule of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which went into effect on January 1, 2019.

On October 26, 2018, Judge Ketanji Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that certain patient days for individuals in the Commonwealth Care program should be included in calculating DSH Medicare reimbursement for 12 Massachusetts hospitals serving large numbers of poor patients.