White House seeks telemedicine expansion advice

With help from Mohana Ravindranath and Darius Tahir

WHITE HOUSE CONVENES TELEMEDICINE ROUNDTABLE: Telemedicine industry groups descended on Washington for the behind-closed doors meeting, where they complained to officials from the White House, HHS and the Federal Trade Commission about policy barriers to widespread access; many of them advocated for completely eliminating originating site restrictions for reimbursement, multiple sources tell Morning eHealth’s Mohana Ravindranath.

The Bipartisan Budget Act removed some of those restrictions for certain conditions including telestroke and end-stage renal disease patients, but the business leaders called for eliminating geographic limitations across the board.

The Office of Public Liaison and National Economic Council hosted the event to discuss “ways to increase choice and competition in telemedicine,” said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. People at the event said officials discussed a 2017 executive order from President Donald Trump that directs HHS, Treasury, the FTC, and the Labor Department to compile a report on state and federal policies viewed as anti-competitive. Apparently, the view is that telemedicine might fit into that category.

Walters said the Trump administration “looks forward to continuing its work to ensure American patients have various options to access the healthcare they deserve.”

HHS MOVES TO GET ITS IN-HOUSE DATA EXCHANGE IN ORDER: The agency plans to make it easier and faster for officials at its 11 divisions to share data, according to a report released today. The idea is to create a technical platform that allows data sharing in a secure environment where the agency has oversight into how officials are responding to data requests, said Chief Data Officer Mona Siddiqui. A proposal for addressing the problems noted in today’s report is due by the end of October, Siddiqui says.

A survey led by Siddiqui’s team found that it often takes more than a year for requested data to get from one agency to another because of bureaucratic rigmarole. The study focused on data that isn’t ready to be shared publicly but could fruitfully be exchanged within HHS.

Siddiqui declined to cite any specific examples but noted how it often takes two years to release national surveys and reports; sometimes problems have already peaked by the time the data revealing them gets out. A concerted effort has sped the release of opioid casualty data, which now occurs quarterly.

CDC is a ray of sunshine in the data darkness, Siddiqui said. It brings information from other agencies into a hub that its scientists can access easily without individually pursuing data agreements with researchers at agencies like, say, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

SEND MOTORBOATS, BOTTLED WATER AND TELEMEDICINE: Most of the big telemedicine companies are offering free services to people hit by Hurricane Florence. They include American Well, Teladoc and Doctor on Demand. So is the University of North Carolina Health Care system. Georgia’s Regional Academic Community Health Information Exchange is working to connect to eHealth Exchange participants in the affected states.

As we all remember (except for you young ‘uns), it was the paper records left floating in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that created the biggest push for the health care system’s EHR conversion through the 2009 HITECH Act.

For map nerds, here’s a data map that correlates the hurricane’s path with health and socioeconomic markers

Tweet of the Day: Farzad Mostashari @Farzad_MD Did we ever get more details on what @HITpolicywonk meant by VA leadership going in a different direction w EHR?

Welcome to Monday Morning eHealth, where we’re ruminating over things we learned last week at a BUILD Health Challenge conference in Denver. One big takeaway: a large and perhaps growing percentage of folks engaged in tackling the social determinants of health think that political disenfranchisement — real or perceived — is one of them ... Send your thoughts on the matter to [email protected], or share on Twitter @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @ravindranize, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_eHealth.

OPIOID BILL TO MOVE TODAY? Word is the Senate will vote on its version late this afternoon, after which it will go into conference with the House. Our colleagues at DataPoint have put together this handy graphic showing the differences in the two versions, for subscribers. The bill has big boosts in funding for ePrescribing, prescription drug monitoring programs, and telemedicine programs for addicted patients. It also expands a demonstration project for federally incentivizing the use of EHRs by behavioral health providers. The House version would overhaul CFR 42 Part 2 to make it easier for doctors to see information on addiction problems in their patients. The Senate version steers clear of that sensitive privacy issue.

HHS SPENDING BILL FLIES THROUGH: On Friday conferees on the FY19 Labor-HHS bill released a final version of that spending bill. On Friday conferees on the FY19 Labor-HHS bill released a final version of that spending bill. It includes increases in spending for telemedicine, FDA, NIH, and — surprise! — AHRQ. “This agreement will fuel efforts to find solutions for such deadly and costly threats as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer,” said Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley, who added that it “will also help overcome the tragedy of the opioid epidemic with an additional $1.3 billion for research, pain management and addiction treatment.”

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING:
California Health Line: California still relies on paper records to do Medicaid reporting for feds

FCW’s Adam Mazmanian asks whether the DoD-VA interagency program office has outlived its usefulness

NYTimes: 23andMe said he’d lose his mind; Ancestry said the opposite

WBUR: Most Bostonians would decline to chek their babies’ DNA even if it was free

JAMA Open Network : The Power of the Nudge to Decrease Decision Fatigue and Increase Influenza Vaccination Rates