During a “Make Health Tech Great Again” event last month, the White House announced the launch of a health tech ecosystem initiative intended to improve health care interoperability and develop more user-friendly apps for consumers. 

The initiative includes a voluntary commitment from more than 60 health care providers, health plans, and tech companies to develop new consumer-facing tools to improve interoperability and health data-sharing. It also seeks  to build a national provider directory to help Medicare patients find providers and services and create better tools to select Medicare plans and track claims.

This effort builds on the May 2025 request for information issued jointly by CMS and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy to solicit suggestions from stakeholders on ways to modernize the nation’s digital health ecosystem. 

As a first step toward implementation of this new plan, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has also released a final rule: Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Electronic Prescribing, Real-Time Prescription Benefit and Electronic Prior Authorization (HTI-4). The regulation updates federal health IT certification requirements to ease the flow of data and reduce administrative burdens. The California Medical Association has long supported efforts to improve the accuracy of plan provider directories and interoperability of electronic health records but is still in the process of reviewing the details of this announcement.