Provider groups: Slow down info blocking rules
With help from Arthur Allen (@arthurallen202) and Mohana Ravindranath (@ravindranize)
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Quick Fix
— Slow down on info blocking rules: Providers are getting nervous about the info blocking rules from ONC and CMS. And more HITAC takeaways.
— Cybersecurity…kills? Does hospital investment in cybersecurity kill? A controversial study says yes. —
— New, privacy-respecting app: A couple of groups focused on reproductive health are rolling out a new app providing information on pregnancy, abortion, and other questions – in a secure, private way.
And more. But first, the jump.
eHealth tweet of the day: Arien Malec @amalec
“Information blocking [regulatory debate] getting real. Provider organizations all like, what? Means us too?”
WEDNESDAY — Anything we’ve been missing? Share with us at [email protected]. Discuss the hot stories socially at @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @ravindranize, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_eHealth.
Driving the Day
CALLS TO SLOW DOWN INFO BLOCKING (AND MORE FROM HITAC) Tuesday’s hearing of the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee featured another front on the info blocking wars – and more. Here’s what you need to know:
— Whoa, hang on: A band of seven provider groups — CHIME, AMA, AMIA, Federation of American Hospitals, Premier Healthcare Alliance, MGMA, and AHIMA — asked ONC to slow its roll on info blocking rules at the hearing. The groups are asking HHS to do supplemental rulemaking and clarify definitions on electronic health information, sort out overlapping deadlines set out by the rule, and address privacy and security concerns.
— Reports looming: The annual report from HITAC — which is beginning to be written now — will look at dilemmas like 21st Century Cures, TEFCA issues, and patient matching and verification improvements. Commenters from the committee included CMS official Kate Goodrich, who brought up quality measure alignment. The task force thinks it’ll finish by January.
The interoperability standards group is closer to completion, having presented a draft report to the committee. The group, which recommends which data-sharing areas should be prioritized, is focusing on standards related consistently coding tests and their results and clinician-to-clinician messaging.
DOES BETTER CYBERSECURITY KILL? — A study this week finds that mortality increased slightly at hospitals in the two years after they stepped up cybersecurity measures following breaches.
The research, appearing in Health Services Research, found an average 2.7-minute increase in “door to EKG time” for heart patients three years after a breach mediation, and a .4 percent increase in mortality at year two. The authors, Vanderbilt University pediatrician Christoph Lehmann and colleagues, say the findings reflect that security measures like two-factor authentication “add inconvenience by design—making it more inconvenient for the adversary,” but also slow workflows.
In a commentary published in the same issue, however, three California physicians argue that the findings may be spurious. They said there’s no reason to think the hospitals that experienced breaches were, on average, more aggressive in implementing new cybersecurity measures than other hospitals, given the health care industry’s increased focus on cyber problems during the study period, from 2012-2016.
A NEW, PRIVACY-RESPECTING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH APP? — A research group and abortion resources network are teaming up on a new app they hope will give patients all the information they need about pregnancies, abortion, STIs, and other sensitive topics without betraying their identities.
The app, called Euki, is designed so that patients can easily delete their data or even lock their account if they’re being forced to show the app to someone else — a partner or a parent, for instance.
Privacy and security are the top two concerns patients have when using apps for reproductive health, according to Caitlin Gerdts, vice president of research at Ibis Reproductive Health, the research group. That group passed along survey findings to Women Help Women (an international nonprofit that also helps people find abortion services), which created and released the app this week.
Susan Yanow of Women Help Women told Morning eHealth that such informational apps are especially crucial today when the Trump administration’s new Title X rule bars federally funded family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers.
— Senate Democrats to Google: A pair of Senate Democrats, Patty Murray and Richard Blumenthal, sent a letter Monday asking Google to clean up the accuracy of its maps data about abortion providers. The letter follows a report from Vice alleging that the search giant’s maps gives inaccurate information to users looking for abortions in areas hostile to abortion rights.
In those areas, the report says, users may see crisis pregnancy centers as opposed to actual abortion providers. A Google spokesperson said that the centers and abortion providers describe themselves similarly, using similar keywords, which confuse the maps’ algorithms. While the senators acknowledge that concern, they nevertheless want the company to put more effort into providing accurate information to users.
— Neurologists comment on CMS physician pay schedule: In a Monday comment, the American Academy of Neurology criticized CMS’ decision to not approve payment codes for remote-monitoring of EEG waves, pressed for privacy and security protections for patient-health-data access, and asked for more work on prior authorization. (In a coincidence, CMS official Kate Goodrich mentioned that prior authorization is becoming the No. 1 burden for physicians, above the oft-cited EHR regulatory requirements.)
VA TRAINING CENTER FOR EHRs — The Department of Veterans Affairs is building a new training center to get users up to speed on EHRs ahead of its Cerner go-live this spring, our colleague Arthur Allen reports. The center, called the VA Innovative Technology Advancement Lab, will train 76 staffers over 12-18 month program.
The concept may help the department avoid the glitchy rollout of its peers in the Pentagon, which suffered from a training deficit.
PERSONNEL NOTES — Former athenahealth co-founder Jonathan Bush is joining concierge care startup Firefly Health as executive chair. Bush left athenahealth last year amid a campaign by activist investors Elliott Management, and allegations of sexual impropriety, including allegations of harassment and suggestive jokes … Cerner hires former Medtronic exec Darrell Johnson as its chief marketing officer … Oscar, the health insurance startup, hires former Uber executive Meghan Joyce as its chief operating officer … athenahealth hires Luis Borgen as its chief financial officer … Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb joins real-world-evidence startup Aetion’s board of directors.
What We're Reading
For transgender patients, telemedicine may be their best shot at good health care, OneZero reports.
The Times (UK) profiles DeepMind and its artificial intelligence work in the National Health Service.
Israel is preparing to unleash AI in its health care system, the Wall Street Journal says.
Records of imaging for millions of patients are available on the internet with just a simple search, ProPublica reports.
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