Compared HHS’s October 26 announcement, ONC’s overview and criterion-by-criterion implementation table with Healthcare IT News reporting and the American Hospital Association’s account. Certification changes and proposed information-blocking changes are distinct. HHS’s savings figure is a projection; no independent outcome assessment is yet available. The photograph is a separately dated public-domain archive image of a military patient portal, not the HTI-5 announcement. No suitable announcement photograph or distinct second photograph was verified in the bounded image search.
Fewer certification requirements than the initial proposal sought
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released its HTI-5 final rule on October 26, reducing requirements in the federal program that certifies health information technology. ONC, the department’s health IT office, says the rule removes 14 of the program’s 60 certification criteria, revises seven and leaves 39 unchanged.
The final rule is narrower than the December 2025 proposal, which sought to remove 34 criteria. Healthcare IT News reported that concerns raised during consultation helped preserve requirements the agency had initially considered dropping. The changes concern certification of software capabilities, including documentation and testing obligations for developers.
Developers face a phased implementation
ONC’s published table assigns different dates to individual changes. Removal of the family-health-history criterion is scheduled for January 1, 2027; a revision to transitions-of-care requirements is scheduled for January 1, 2030. Other changes are tied to the final rule’s effective date. The announcement therefore does not mean every requirement disappears immediately.
The agency also scales back real-world testing requirements and makes related changes to developer certification conditions. HHS projects more than $1.5 billion in regulatory cost savings and says developers could redirect resources toward better products. That is an agency estimate, not an independently measured improvement in costs, interoperability or patient care.
Data-access proposals are a separate unfinished decision
HHS said comments on the proposed information-blocking provisions remain under consideration. Those proposals concern practices that can interfere with access to or exchange of electronic health information; they were not finalized with the certification changes.
Healthcare IT News reported that the deferred proposals included accommodating certain health-information requests made through AI agents. The final rule should therefore not be read as already imposing that proposed requirement. ONC says it intends further work on standards and application programming interfaces, but the scope of later rulemaking remains to be determined.
Sources
5 references
- HHSHHS finalizes HTI-5 deregulatory rulePrimary announcement; final-rule release, projected savings and pending information-blocking proposals · 2026-10-26
- ONCHTI-5 final rule overviewPrimary overview; 14 removals, seven revisions and 39 unchanged certification criteria · 2026-10-27
- ONCHTI-5 removals or revisions of certification criteriaPrimary implementation table; criterion-specific timing · 2026-10-26
- Healthcare IT NewsONC finalizes HTI-5 health IT deregulation ruleIndependent specialist reporting; finalized scope, deferred proposals and industry response · 2026-10-27
- American Hospital AssociationONC finalizes certain deregulatory actions related to health data, technology, interoperabilityHospital-industry association account; corroborates the narrowed final rule and deferred information-blocking changes · 2026-10-26
