By Jim Tate, EMR Advocate
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Host of The Tate Chronicles – #TateDispatches
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On the first day of his second term (January 20, 2025), President Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
A portion of that EO stated, “that it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” How does this affect Certified Health Information Technology and specifically the requirements of HTI-1?
HTI-1 mandated additional data fields to be included in the (a)(5) Patient demographics and observations criteria with a deadline of December 31, 2025. Those required data fields included: sexual orientation, gender identity, sex parameter for clinical use, name to use, and pronouns. Now, with a stroke of the pen, the required functionality to document that data is gone, along with the onerous dependency to update the (g)(3) Safety enhanced design document.
If you want more details, it can be found at this Enforcement Discretion and Certification Guidance document which also states, “This enforcement discretion and certification guidance will remain in effect for twelve (12) months from the date of this notice or until the Department of Health and Human Services completes a regulatory action to revise the applicable regulations in compliance with EO 14168, whichever comes first.”