Will study results mean more teleabortion?

With help from Arthur Allen (@arthurallen202)

WILL STUDY RESULTS MEAN MORE TELEABORTION?: A study being conducted by pro-choice not-for-profit Gynuity Reproductive Health seeks to boost access to tele-abortion, our colleagues Mohana Ravindranath and Rachana Pradhan report. The study is examining whether it’s safe for women to self-administer abortion pills at home after seeing a doctor via video. Currently, doctors have to monitor patients as they take the drugs in a clinical setting.

If results are positive, Gynuity will petition FDA to allow these drugs to be distributed more widely through the mail. That, in turn, will increase access to tele-abortion in the states that haven’t banned the practice, while potentially making it easier for women to obtain the drugs in the nineteen states that ban tele-abortion.

The study results would make a big difference in any case, but may become particularly salient in a world where constitutional guarantees to abortion are overturned. Depending on the Supreme Court’s ruling, regulations on abortion may revert back to the states – which would mean internet-and-mail access to abortion pills would gain ground. Pros can get the rest here.

WILKIE VOTE COMING: VA secretary nominee Robert Wilkie will get his confirmation vote July 23, a spokesman for Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn confirmed Thursday evening. Wilkie, who got the near-unanimous (minus Bernie Sanders) approval of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee earlier this month, is expected to be confirmed.

At which point he’ll be dealing with the Cerner implementation, a department roiled by turnover and political infighting, and straightening out the agency’s integration of private care options with its traditional public services.

eHealth tweet of the day: Lisa Simpson @DrSimpsonHSR “Hilarious n chilling comment: #EHR vendor told them ‘you have to have a waiting room - cos u have to finish checkin before you assign a room!’ #resistance to #innovation #design”

FRIDAY: Your correspondent notes that the buzz surrounding Scott Gottlieb’s recent comments regarding almond milk lactation has provoked an important follow-up investigation from highly reputable watchdog muckrakers The Onion regarding the new FDA-approved name for almond milk, which we won’t repeat because this right here is a family newsletter. Discuss new names for milk alternatives at [email protected]. Talk milk socially at @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @ravindranize, @POLITICOPro, @Morning_eHealth.

Catch all the highlights from Tuesday’s Pro Summit. Video clips, event content and more are now available from a full day of incisive policy conversations. View Summit Highlights.

View the latest POLITICO/AARP poll to better understand Arizona voters over 50, a voting bloc poised to shape the midterm election outcome. Get up to speed on priority issues for Hispanic voters age 50+, who will help determine whether Arizona turns blue or stays red.

What role will Hispanic voters over 50 play in Arizona this Fall? Read POLITICO Magazine’s new series “The Deciders” which focuses on this powerful voting bloc that could be the determining factor in turning Arizona blue.

BIG CYBERATTACK ACKNOWLEDGED: LabCorp acknowledged Wednesday that it was stricken by a ransomware attack over last weekend, though it sees no indication that data has been stolen or misused. The lab testing giant had previously disclosed, in more general terms, that an attack had returned.

But now they’re more being more specific. The company says that operations have “substantially resumed” following the attack, though there are still some residual outages, its spokeswoman Pattie Kushner said in a statement. They’ve engaged outside security experts and are working with law enforcement.

UPDATES FROM HHS: Here’s a roundup of Thursday’s happenings at HHS:

— FDA reorganization: FDA is planning to shuffle its offices, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Thursday morning. It would create the new Office of Clinical Policy and Programs and the Office of Food Policy and Response. The former office would handle orphan products, pediatric therapeutics and combination products.

The Office of the Chief Scientist is slated to oversee offices for minority and women’s health (which previously reported directly to the commissioner). And the domestic and global policy groups will be merged under the Office of Policy, Legislation and International Affairs.

The proposal will be reviewed by HHS, but doesn’t require Congressional approval. If approved, the changes will be put into effect in October.

— CMS CHIO: We’ve previously discussed CMS’s job posting for a Chief Health Informatics Officer, but on Wednesday, agency administrator Seema Verma provided some more details about the role in a blog post.

Much of the post describes plans to ensure interoperability and promote the MyHealthEData initiative, but it seems the new official — whomever he or she turns out to be (here’s the job listing) — will also have internal responsibilities. Verma envisions an executive who can help make agency data available through an API, and supply data to inform policy choices.

— SAMHSA grant: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is looking to provide $5 million over five years in grants to a group that will help provide education and technical assistance to health care practitioners and patients looking to navigate privacy regulations governing the sharing of behavioral health and substance abuse data. The administration specifically highlights 42 CFR Part 2 and HIPAA as relevant regulations.

— OCR sued: The Office for Civil Rights was sued Thursday by a pair of not-for-profit groups seeking results from a Freedom of Information Act request regarding OCR’s controversial new conscience division. The full complaint is here.

NOW YOU SEE HIM (NOW YOU DON’T): Brookings is examining the MIPS program today, seemingly with a jaundiced eye, if the event’s name — “Can the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System be salvaged?” — is anything to judge by. But the troupers will have to go on without one of the original cast: OMB’s Joe Grogan was originally scheduled to speak but then pulled out. Details and livestream here.

BUNDLED PAYMENTS GET DISAPPOINTING RESULTS: CMMI’s bundled payment initiative did poorly for most conditions by most measures, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals. While bundling payments for joint replacement has done well, the authors say applying the initiative to other conditions — which include pneumonia, sepsis, and congestive heart failure — produces indifferent results. The payments did not produce significant cost savings, or boosts to quality. The authors caution that the program was voluntary, which may have biased the results, but neither is it good news for aspirations to save money and get better care by shifting from the traditional fee-for-service model.

MORE PRE-CERT COMMENTS!: The University of California, San Francisco, has some thoughts about FDA’s latest pre-certification working model. The agency’s working model, for those who don’t recall, proposes to move regulatory scrutiny from software products to their developers. The agency will base its decisions, in part, on review of various performance analytics, and the UCSF wants regulators to look at analytics about real-world use, particularly whether that use indicates a product is more risky than it might seem; whether its workflow is usable; and whether it is interoperable.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING ON:

—Chattanooga embraces telehealth.

—Deloitte surveys doctors on virtual care.

—USA Today covers doctors and hospitals suing patients who leave bad reviews.