Telehealth tidbit in Biden’s 2020 rural health plan

With help from Arthur Allen (@arthurallen202) and Darius Tahir (@dariustahir)

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Quick Fix

—Telehealth tidbit in Biden’s 2020 rural health plan: The current Democratic presidential front-runner plans to use technology and federal funding to help rural communities reduce health disparities.

— Big tech in the hot seat: Lawmakers spotlighted the conduct of Google, Amazon and Facebook in hearings and an open letter this week.

— A new model for AI governance?: The Pentagon is establishing a Joint Artificial Intelligence Center as part of its modernization strategy.

eHealth Tweet of the day: @MsWZ: How’s it going in US healthcare?

I’ve been working on a really simple script refill, due 6/26. It is just now being counted and filled. It’s 7/15.

The clinic’s EHR was sending to CVS. Repeatedly.

CVS couldn’t see it.

Today I convinced everyone to use telephones.

It’s WEDNESDAY at Morning eHealth where your author hopes you’re reading this from somewhere cool, given the impending heatwave. News tips and cool breezes go to [email protected]. Tweet the team at @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @ravindranize, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_eHealth.

Driving the Day

BIDEN DIPS INTO TELEHEALTH, OUT OF CANCER RESEARCH — Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden unveiled his rural health care plan this week, shortly after his eponymous cancer research nonprofit suspended operations.

... If elected, Biden would expand a federal grant program to include virtual medical treatment in rural areas — especially for mental health and specialized services, according to a fact sheetcirculated by his campaign this week. Specifically, he’d ensure that the USDA Community Facility Direct Loan & Grant Program could be used to support telehealth; he also proposed a White House “StrikeForce” that could help rural communities find federal funds.

... The Biden Cancer Initiative is taking a break due to the former vice president’s “unique circumstances,” according to Greg Simon, who heads up the nonprofit, our colleague Arthur Allen reports. Simon said the group remains “personally committed to the cause, but at this time will have to pause efforts.”

Joe and Jill Biden started up that effort in 2017, focusing in part on encouraging data sharing between cancer patients, researchers and clinicians. They recently stepped down in anticipation of Biden’s run, and at the time Simon expected the initiative would continue to run with a nine-person staff and a $3 million budget.

BRACE YOURSELVES FOR THE TELEMEDICINE GIG ECONOMY—The number of doctors who list virtual care as a skill has doubled between 2015 and 2018, and grows by about 20 percent each year, according to a new analysis from social network Doximity. In analyzing who clicked on or responded to job postings, researchers also found growing interest in locum tenens jobs — often part-time, temporary gigs — that could signal doctors want more flexible employment. While women were 10 percent more likely to be interested in telemedicine jobs, men appeared much more interested in locum tenens positions: about 74 percent of people interested in locum tenens jobs were men.

... Also on telehealth, the state of Maryland has posted a Notice of Proposed Action indicating its interest in allowing licensed clinical social workers use telehealth for therapy, mHealthIntelligence reports.

In Congress

PRIVACY, BIAS QUESTIONS ERUPT IN WASHINGTON — House and Senate leaders increasingly pressed tech executives and regulators for details on their practices this week. A few takeaways:

— More questions on Facebook settlement: A bipartisan group of senators is pushing the Federal Trade Commission to disclose whether its settlement with Facebook will include restrictions on its privacy practices, our colleague Cristiano Lima reports. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said that without additional punitive measures, the agency’s $5 billion fine against Facebook is “a far cry from the type of monetary figure that would alter the incentives and behavior of Facebook and its peers.”

“The public expects the Commission to put consumers first and to take all necessary steps in your power to remedy Facebook’s privacy problems,” the lawmakers wrote to FTC commissioners. “We are highly disappointed to learn that the Commission has apparently failed to reach a strong, bipartisan agreement, sending the wrong message to tech companies.”

... As we’ve reported, patients have long used Facebook to find others with similar conditions; the leader of one such group filed a complaint with the FTC alleging that the social network exposed patients’ sensitive health information by making group membership lists accessible to outsiders.

—Senators spar on bias: During a hearing on Google’s search and content moderation practices this week, Sen. Ted Cruz demanded that the search giant hand over data on how its algorithms work, referring to allegations that it censors conservatives, our colleague John Hendel reports. “Just as big tech needs and wants data on all of us, the American people need and want data on big tech ... We need it to protect free speech,” said Cruz, who chairs Senate Judiciary’s constitution subcommittee. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), the subcommittee’s ranking member noted that an earlier hearing found that “claims of anti-conservative bias in the tech industry are baseless.”

— Amazon, app developers testify on antitrust: During a Tuesday hearing, House Judiciary antitrust chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) pressed Amazon on whether it favors its own products on its retail site, echoing an argument Sen. Elizabeth Warrenmade in her proposal to break upbig tech, Cristiano writes. Cicilline asked Amazon executive Nate Sutton if the company has created “a conflict of interest” by offering Amazon-brand products on its websites; Sutton said the company “partners” with third-party sellers, but Cicilline countered that Amazon is “selling your own products on a platform that you control and you’re competing with products in the marketplace from other sellers.“

... Among other witnesses was ACT | The App Association and Connected Health Initiative’s Morgan Reed. In prepared testimony, he emphasized that app developers have “direct relationships with their customers and clients,” and aren’t “suppliers or manufacturers” working on behalf of the platforms where their apps are sold, he said. “Our member companies want platforms to compete for their business, and they want to ensure competition is robust.”

... Also on Amazon, Sen. Bernie Sanders said that if elected president he would “absolutely” plan to break up Facebook, Google and Amazon. At a Washington Post event this week, Sanders said Facebook had “incredible power over the economy, over the political life of this country in a very dangerous sense.”

CBO: LOWER HEALTH CARE COST BILL WOULD SAVE $7.6 B — Elsewhere in the Senate, the HELP Committee’s bipartisan bill to lower health costs would save the government billions of dollars over the next 10 years, our POLITICO colleagues Rachel Roubein and Sarah Owermohle report on a recent CBO analysis. The Lower Health Care Costs Acts of 2019 would, among other measures, encourage price transparency and health information exchange.

NEW AI CENTER COULD HELP PENTAGON KEEP PACE WITH PRIVATE SECTOR — The Pentagon is creating a Joint Artificial Intelligence Center as part of its Digital Modernization Strategy, our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher reports. The news comes as other agencies mull over how to incorporate artificial intelligence into their operations; as our POLITICO tech colleagues have reported, House Science Committee leaders say they’re working on legislation addressing a national artificial intelligence strategy.

Cybersecurity

MORE FALLOUT FROM AMCA BREACH — Clinical Pathology Laboratories says that it has been notified by the American Medical Collection Agency, a collection company, about unauthorized activity on its payment page, 360dxreports. That same breach also exposed data belonging to millions of patients using Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corporation of America services.

Research Corner

NEW TRIAL TAKES ON FDA APPROVAL PROCESS — Digital therapeutics company Biofourmis is partnering with the Yale University-Mayo Clinic Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation to examine whether quality of life and other measures should be used in the drug approval process. The study could encourage regulatory groups to “patient-centric” data, which could “potentially speed the regulatory approval process,” Kuldeep Singh Rajput, Biofourmis’ CEO, said in a release.

In Congress

WELLNESS PROGRAM FACES GINA CHALLENGE — The AARP Foundation has filed a class action lawsuit against Yale alleging that its employee wellness program, which requires workers to take certain medical tests and share their claims data with wellness vendors, violates both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Employees who don’t share their medical and genetic information are fined $1,300 a year, according to AARP.

Names in the News

After less than a year, Leana Wen is out at Planned Parenthood. ... American Well picks W.B. “Mitch” Mitchell as its new group vice president of government solutions. ...

What We're Reading

—MarketWatch has more details on Livongo’s IPO.

—Siddhartha Mukherjee digs into cellular therapies for The New Yorker.

—An interdisciplinary team including psychologists and podcasters helped shape Daylight, an app for anxiety, writes Stat’s Megan Thielking.