CMS seeking comment for crucial data sharing rule

With help from Darius Tahir

GET THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS IN: One of HHS’s most important health IT decisions this year is whether to make data sharing a condition of participation in Medicare programs. That question was posed in an RFI that CMS sent out in April; the agency asked for answers by next Tuesday, June 26.

... In the notice, CMS said it was considering requiring hospitals that participate in Medicare to share medically necessary information electronically with other providers when a patient is transferred or discharged. CMS wants to know whether members of the health care industry think such a rule would reduce information blocking as defined in the 21st Century Cures Act (ONC is supposed to come up with a more specific definition later this year), what kind of barriers well-meaning providers would face in complying with this rule, and what kind of time frame would be reasonable for compliance if CMS decides to go ahead with the requirement.

... “This is huge,” said former ONC chief Farzad Mostashari, now CEO of ACO consulting firm Aledade. There are still plenty of hospitals and health systems that don’t want to share data about patients, Mostashari said, and the government needs to get heavy with them. We haven’t seen any comments on this issue but “you’re going to see a very big group pushing for this requirement,” he told us.

Tweet of the Day: Genevieve Morris @HITpolicywonk How much of a health IT nerd does it make you if while watching The Ranch you actually flinch when the doctor writes a prescription for a statin on a pad, tears it off, and hands it to one of the main characters?

Welcome to Monday morning eHealth. We’re communicating with you this morning from Los Angeles, where your eHealth editor is spending the week. Love your work, baby! Pencil me in for tips and story ideas at [email protected], or tweet to me and my crew @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @ravindranize, @POLITICOPro, @Morning_eHealth.

Join Pro subscribers, expert reporters and key decision-makers from the executive branch, federal agencies and Congress for a full day of incisive policy conversations on July 17. New speakers include CMS Administrator Seema Verma, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and others. Register today.

NOT EXACTLY HEALTH IT: But Pro readers might enjoy my interview with former CDC chief William Foege, a leading figure in the recent history of U.S. public health who, during the smallpox eradication campaign, came up with the idea of carefully tracing cases and vaccinating only those at risk of infection. Ring vaccination, as the approach was to be known, delivered the knockout blow to smallpox and is now being used now to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

SHAKEDOWN ON CMMI STREET: The White House is putting the heat on CMS’S Innovation Center’s work, saying “underwhelming” results from its $10 billion experiment with health care payment models prompted the administration to retract $800 million from the office budget, PRO Health’s David Pittman and Adam Cancryn reported Friday. Their complete story for Pros here.

TARIFF TROUBLES: The Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports cover roughly $836 million worth of medical devices and diagnostic products, according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association. The list includes sterilizers, electrocardiographs, MRIs, sonograms, X-ray machines and optical, surgical and anesthetic instruments. Several members of Congress signed a letter to USTR last month arguing that including medical technology products on the list would hurt U.S. manufacturing. Most of the imports are inputs for products made “right here in America,” they wrote, so the tariffs “potentially increase health care costs, which would limit patient access to life-saving technology.”

LIZ AND SUNNY FACE THE KLIEG LIGHTS: Federal authorities on Friday indicted Theranos executives Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani on nine counts of wire fraud and two of conspiracy. Each faces 20 years in prison for each count, plus $250,000 in fines. The Department of Justice accuses them of defrauding doctors, patients, and investors by lying about the capabilities of their blood-testing technology. Holmes and erstwhile boyfriend Balwani at one time led a company valued at $9 billion that was backed by a formidable board of powerful brass and former public officials. As you’ll recall, the company claimed it could conduct hundreds of blood tests on just a few drops of blood obtained from a fingerpick; it sold its tests at dozens of Walgreens stores.

… “Holmes and Balwani knew that Theranos’ proprietary analyzer had accuracy and reliability problems, performed a limited number of tests, was slower than some competing devices and could not compete with larger, conventional machines in high-throughput, or the simultaneous testing of blood from many patients,” the indictment states.

WASHINGTON STATE DEFIES EPIC RULING: On May 21, the Supreme Court held in favor of Epic Systems’argument that it could enforce arbitration agreements containing class action waivers despite National Labor Relations Act arguments to the contrary. Last week, Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee issued an Executive Order seeking to discourage employers from implementing agreements with such waivers, in what could signal a backlash against the ruling.

… Inslee’s order says that when workers are forced into such agreements as a condition of employment they “are stripped of a powerful tool to level the historical imbalance between employers and employees.” It goes on to proclaim that the Epic Systems decision “will inevitably result in an increased difficulty in holding employers accountable for widespread practices that harm workers,” without providing any examples. The order references the #MeToo movement, which itself prompted numerous high-profile employers to reconsider arbitration agreements in cases of alleged sexual harassment. It suggests that the state will not pursue contracts with companies that require such class action waivers of their employees.

DOD SEEKS ANALYSIS OF ITS BRAIN INJURY RESEARCH: The Pentagon’s Combat Casualty Care Research Program has released an RFI for the secondary analysis of data housed within its brain injury research program. It wants plans for utilizing data in its repository in order to come up with better diagnosis, management and treatment of traumatic brain injury. More details here.

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