Comment on CMS-2026-1255-0001

HIMSS (the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) is a mission-driven independent society, a global thought leader, and an advisor dedicated to creating an informed and empowered community of providers, innovators, and individuals. HIMSS stands apart by bridging strategic and visionary ideas with practical execution, empowering health systems and governments globally to achieve measurable impact for the future of health and care. HIMSS commends CMS’s continued commitment to advancing ePrior Authorization (ePA) processes and interoperability standards through the proposed rule. HIMSS endorses the goals of the proposed rule that makes for a more transparent, expedited, and reliable patient and provider experience and to ensure patients get the right care at the right time. As a matter of principle, HIMSS believes that seamless, secure, ubiquitous, and nationwide data access and interoperable health information exchange should ensure the right people have the right access to the right health information in a usable format at the right time to provide the optimal level of care. The reduction of barriers to the appropriate exchange of health information through harmonizing privacy and security laws, regulations, directives, and industry-led guidelines is paramount to transforming the health ecosystem, modernizing care delivery, driving health innovation at the institutional and personal level, and enabling health research. Additional comments are attached. Thank you.