As you may know, NASCSA, in collaboration with NABP’s PMPi Steering Committee Federal Affairs Subcommittee, submitted public comments expressing concerns with the PDMP portions of HHS/ONC’s HTI-2 proposed rulemaking and requested that he PDMP components of the proposed rule be wholly removed. In July, the ONC was renamed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology hereafter referred to ASTP/ONC.
NABP requested a hearing with the OMB to reiterate our concerns with the rulemaking. This call was held on December 9. NABP, NASCSA, and several state PMP administrators/directors participated in the call. OMB listened to the provided testimony and did not respond to any of the questions or comments.
ASTP/ONC published part of the HTI-2 final rulemaking on December 16. This partial finalization of the HTI-2 rulemaking did NOT contain the provisions relating to PDMPs.
On December 17, 2024, ASTP/ONC published a second part of the rulemaking, now identified as HTI-3. Again, this finalized portion of the rulemaking did NOT contain the provisions relating to PDMPs.
The exclusion of the PDMP provisions in these partial rulemaking finalizations is generally positive news for the states; however, the agency is planning to publish “HTI-4” in March.