256 
tional Coordinator under paragraph (1) shall not be 
subject to the provisions of section 552 of title 5, 
United States Code (commonly referred to as the 
Freedom of Information Act). Any information ac-
quired pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be held in 
confidence and shall not be disclosed to any person 
except as may be necessary to carry out the pur-
poses of subsection (a). 
‘‘(3) NON-APPLICATION OF PAPERWORK REDUC-
TION ACT.—Chapter 35 of title 44, United States 
Code (commonly referred to as the Paperwork Re-
duction Act of 1995) shall not apply to the National 
Coordinator or to the Office of the National Coordi-
nator for Health Information Technology with re-
spect to the collection of complaints relating to 
claims described in subsection (a). 
‘‘(d) PENALTY.—Any person or entity determined to 
have committed an act described in paragraph (1), (2), 
or (3) of subsection (a), in connection with a specified 
meaningful use incentive program, shall be subject to a 
civil monetary penalty of not more than $10,000 for each 
such act. The provisions of section 1128A (other than sub-
sections (a) and (b)) shall apply to a civil money penalty 
applied under this subsection in the same manner as they 
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257 
apply to a civil money penalty or proceeding under section 
1128A(a). 
‘‘(e) SPECIFIED MEANINGFUL USE INCENTIVE PRO-
GRAM.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘specified 
meaningful use incentive program’ includes the following: 
‘‘(1) The incentive payments under subsection 
(o) of section 1848 of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395w–4) and adjustments under subsection 
(a)(7) of such section. 
‘‘(2) The incentive payments under subsection 
(n) of section 1848 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww) 
and adjustments under subsection (b)(3)(B) of such 
section. 
‘‘(3) The incentive payments and adjustments 
made under subsections (l) and (m) of section 1853 
of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w–23). 
‘‘(4) The incentive payment under paragraph 
(3) of section 1814(l) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395f(l)) and adjustment under paragraph (4) of 
such section. 
‘‘(5) The shared savings program under section 
1899 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395jjj). 
‘‘(6) The payments to Medicaid providers de-
scribed in section 1903(t) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
1396b(t)). 
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258 
‘‘(f) INFORMATION BLOCKING.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-
tion and section 3010, the term ‘information block-
ing’ means, with respect to the use of qualified elec-
tronic health records or other health information 
technology under a specified meaningful use incen-
tive program, business, technical, and organizational 
practices, including practices described in paragraph 
(2), that— 
‘‘(A) prevent or materially discourage the 
exchange of electronic health information; 
‘‘(B) the actor knows or should know (as 
defined in section 1128A(i)(7) of the Social Se-
curity Act) is likely to interfere with the ex-
change or use of electronic health information; 
and 
‘‘(C) do not serve to protect patient safety, 
maintain the privacy and security of individ-
uals’ health information or promote competition 
and consumer welfare. 
‘‘(2) PRACTICES DESCRIBED.—For purposes of 
paragraph (1), the practices described in this para-
graph are the following: 
‘‘(A) Contract terms, policies, or other 
business or organizational practices that restrict 
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259 
individuals’ access to their electronic health in-
formation or restrict the exchange or use of 
that information for treatment and other per-
mitted purposes. 
‘‘(B) Charging prices or fees (such as for 
data exchange, portability, and interfaces) that 
make exchanging and using electronic health in-
formation cost prohibitive. 
‘‘(C) Developing or implementing health 
information technology in non-standard ways 
that are likely to substantially increase the 
costs, complexity, or burden of sharing elec-
tronic health information, especially in cases in 
which relevant interoperability standards or 
methods to measure interoperability have been 
adopted by the Secretary. 
‘‘(D) Developing or implementing health 
information technology in ways that are likely 
to lock in users or electronic health information, 
such as not allowing for the full export of data; 
lead to fraud, waste, or abuse; or impede inno-
vations and advancements in health information 
exchange and health information technology-en-
abled care delivery. 
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260 
‘‘(g) TREATMENT OF VENDORS WITH RESPECT TO 
PATIENT SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS.—In applying part C 
of title IX— 
‘‘(1) vendors shall be treated as a provider (as 
defined in section 921) for purposes of reporting re-
quirements under such part, to the extent that such 
reports are related to attestation requirements under 
section 3001(c)(5)(C)(i)(I); 
‘‘(2) claims of information blocking described in 
subsection (a) shall be treated as a patient safety ac-
tivity under such part for purposes of reporting re-
quirements under such part; and 
‘‘(3) health care providers that are not mem-
bers of patient safety organizations shall be treated 
in the same manner as health care providers that 
are such members for purposes of such reporting re-
quirements with respect to claims of information 
blocking described in subsection (a).’’. 
(3) ONCHIT.— 
(A) PORTAL.—Section 3001(c) of the Pub-
lic Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300jj–11(c)) 
is amended by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph: 
‘‘(9) PORTAL.—Not later than January 1, 
2019, the National Coordinator shall create a portal 
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267 
riod to which such decertification ap-
plies. 
‘‘(cc) In no case shall an exemp-
tion by reason of item (bb) be for a 
period of less than 12 months. 
‘‘(dd) An exemption under item 
(bb) may be extended for a period of 
an additional 12 months subject to 
the limitation described in item (ee). 
‘‘(ee) Subject to item (cc), in no 
case may a hospital be granted an ex-
emption under this subclause for more 
than 5 years.’’. 
(C) 
DEMONSTRATION
REQUIRED
FOR 
MEANINGFUL
EHR
USE
INCENTIVES
UNDER 
MEDICAID.—Section 1903(t)(2) of the Social 
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396b(t)(2)) is amend-
ed by adding at the end the following: ‘‘An eli-
gible professional shall not qualify as a Med-
icaid provider under this subsection, with re-
spect to a year beginning with 2018, unless 
such provider demonstrates to the Secretary, 
through means such as an attestation, that the 
provider has not taken any action described in 
subsection (a)(2) of section 3010A of the Public 
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