The 2026 Unified Agenda, published by OMB and summarized by Covington's Inside Privacy on July 20, 2026, lists several HHS health privacy and interoperability actions for the second half of the year. It targeted August 2026 for a final HIPAA Privacy Rule update based on a January 2021 proposal on care coordination and individual access. It also listed a proposed rule on timely access to protected health information for November 2026, an HTI-6 proposed rule on APIs and information blocking for November 2026, and a CMS proposal to update the X12 5010 electronic claims and remittance standards for December 2026.
The access-deadline proposal matters for any practice or health plan that handles patient record requests. The 2021 proposal would have cut the response deadline from 30 days plus a 30-day extension to 15 days plus a 15-day extension, though Davis Wright Tremaine notes HHS may instead seek comment on another approach. The X12 update would eventually affect practice management and billing systems.
Davis Wright Tremaine also suggested that organizations planning to revise their notice of privacy practices may want to wait for the final Privacy Rule to avoid revising it twice. Ask your EHR, practice management and clearinghouse vendors how they are tracking the HTI-6 and X12 proposals, and whether their product roadmaps and contracts cover required updates at no extra cost.
Agenda dates are statements of intent and often slip, as the Security Rule did. Treat them as a planning signal, and confirm whether the Privacy Rule final rule has been published before changing policies or patient notices.
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