Health IT & Interoperability

CMS and Epic are moving electronic prior authorization from compliance planning into operational readiness, with an AHA webinar focused on preparing hospitals for the coming ePA workflow shift—an immediate issue for ACOs, MA plans, and risk-bearing providers because authorization friction directly affects leakage, avoidable delays, and site-of-care management (AHA). At the same time, OpenAI’s Epic integration and expanded healthcare/public-health data connections signal that AI-enabled chart review, population surveillance, and care coordination tools are moving deeper into core EHR workflows, raising near-term governance questions around data access, documentation integrity, and accountable-care performance management (Fierce Healthcare). For VBC leaders, the common thread is that interoperability is becoming less about static data exchange and more about embedding automated decisions into referrals, prior auth, and longitudinal care operations—areas where poor integration can quickly translate into higher SNF use, missed home-health opportunities, and weaker total-cost-of-care performance.