HHS promises moves on privacy, Stark

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

HHS PROMISES MOVES ON PRIVACY, STARK: HHS will be issuing requests for information regarding HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2 and the Stark Anti-Kickback Statute in the coming months with an eye to revamping the rules, department secretary Alex Azar said in a speech before the Heritage Foundation Thursday. Interpretations of the laws “are not just impeding value-based arrangements in healthcare,” he said. “They can also get in the way of communities and families working together to combat our country’s crisis of opioid addiction.” Azar also referred to the RFI in a speech earlier this month.

Earlier this year, the House passed the Overdose Prevention and Safety Act (H.R. 6082 (115)) aiming to enable providers to share behavioral data more freely under 42 CFR Part 2.

Congressmen Larry Bucshon, Raul Ruiz, Kenny Marchant and Ron Kind have introduced bipartisan legislation to reform Stark so physicians can more easily create partnerships for community care in advanced payment models.

SCHIFF DEMANDS HIPAA UPDATE FROM HHS: Rep. Adam Schiff sent a letter to Azar Thursday asking for updates on the implementation of a provision in the 21st Century Cures Act that would clarify when providers can share information with patients’ caregivers about mental health and substance abuse. While HIPAA laws let providers share certain information with patient family members and outside groups in emergencies, “widespread misunderstandings persist and create obstacles to family support that is crucial to the proper care and treatment of persons experiencing a crisis,” the letter reads. Cures Law directs HHS to come up with training and instruction models for providers clarifying when they can share information.

“As long as misconceptions or ignorance of the rights and responsibilities associated with the privacy rule persist, HIPAA may continue to hinder necessary communication with significant implications for patient care and public safety in circumstances in which providers are legally allowed to share information.,” says the letter, co-signed by Reps. John Katko, Grace Napolitano, Gus Bilirakis, Salud Carbajal and Jimmy Panetta.

COONS, GARDNER DEBUT DRUG DATA BILL: A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday to crack down on suspicious orders of controlled substances. Presented by Reps. Chris Coons, Cory Gardner, Leonard Lance and Doris Matsui, the DEA Clearinghouse Act of 2018 would require the agency to create a system registering all controlled substances orders. The clearinghouse would pass the orders through a database that would automatically flag suspicious requests and notify suppliers to prevent them from being filled.

Coons said in a news release that the measure was a “commonsense proposal that will shore up our drug supply chain, eliminating blind spots, and keeping our communities safer and healthier.” The system would give distributors real-time insight into the total volume of orders from their customers, including from other suppliers, according to background informationdistributed by Coons and Gardner.

eHealth Tweet of the day: Genevieve Morris @HITpolicywonk Got to visit the@VeteransHealth Orlando SIM center yesterday. It has advanced simulations from ED to OR to ambulatory. Lots of opportunities to test workflows and train VA clinicians on our new EHR

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SUPPORT FOR SENATE 5G BILL: Over in the other chamber of Congress, a Senate bill aiming to simplify the deployment of small wireless facilities won kudos from Health IT Now. In its letter of support for the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act — introduced by Sens. John Thune and Brian Schatz — the lobbying group said the measure would “simplify the process and timeframes for approvals” of 5G broadband deployment, which could support telehealth technology.

MIPS HEARING IN E&C: Medical groups pressed CMS to allow their members to create new alternative payment models that have the approval of the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee, which was created under MACRA to advise CMS on payment reform.

During a House Energy and Commerce hearing Thursday, Former AMA President David Barbe and Frank Opelka, a senior official at the American College of Surgeons, said PTAC had accepted 10 payment models they had forwarded from specialty societies and physician groups, but CMS had disregarded them. Later, however, AMA sent Morning eHealth an encouraging letter from CMMI leader Adam Boehler (it landed at AMA on Wednesday, so Barbe may not have seen it). Boehler promises to “continue to analyze the proposals” that PTAC had sent its way.

Both Barbe and Opelka also urged CMS to expand its new “Promoting Interoperability” reporting requirements beyond certified EHR attestation to measures that utilize health IT built on top of the EHR. “In implementing MIPS, CMS should have a laser focus on making sure that a complete view of a patient’s digital health information is available to physicians, in a useful, standardized form, when it matters most,” Opelka testified.

ONC HEADS’ FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES REVEALED: ONC chief Don Rucker and his chief deputy Genevieve Morris have fairly straightforward financial lives, their public financial disclosure reports obtained by POLITICO show. As a condition of joining the federal government in 2017, the pair have divested stock holdings: in Rucker’s case, equity in Siemens, Alphabet, and Microsoft, among other companies; and in Morris’ case, stock options in Audacious Inquiry, the consultancy for which she previously worked. Morris has also signed an ethics agreement recusing her from matters in which Audacious Inquiry is a party.

….HEALTH CARE INNOVATION CAUCUS ASKED, PEW ANSWERED: In other ONC news, the Pew Charitable Trusts has Congress to press ONC on health data interoperability and APIs.

Pew’s Health IT project argued in a letter to House lawmakers that greater interoperability for EHRs, and better data on medical implants, would improve the quality of health care and reduce costs. Reps. Mike Kelly, Markwayne Mullin, Ron Kind and Ami Bera — members of the Health Care Innovation Caucus — had requested the input.

Congress should direct ONC to improve patient matching, for starters by “encouraging better standards for the data elements that must be exchanged — so that data transmitted can be matched to the right patients,” the letter said. Pew also suggested that ONC clarify what information EHR developers should make available for APIs and ensure that it goes beyond what is currently required in the Common Clinical Data Set.

PHYSICIAN MISCONDUCT: THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT: The Medical Board of California unveiled a mobile app designed to help patients keep track of on their physicians’ licensing status — like whether they’ve changed addresses or added a specialty, or were disciplined for transgressions like overprescribing, sexual misconduct or criminal convictions, POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver reports.

The app, which became available for free on iTunes Thursday, allows iPhones and iPad users to follow up to 16 doctors. But one advocate for greater transparency into physician malfeasance wasn’t impressed. Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, called the app a “nice PR splash” but said it “won’t improve transparency for the vast majority of Californians who don’t know they can look up their doctor in the first place.”

HEALTH CARE CEOS CLEAN UP: An Axios analysis finds that 64 health care CEOs on the S&P 500 made almost $1.7 billion last year, based on the value of actual realized gains on their stock options and awards. Former Cerner CEO Neal Patterson — who died last year — was compensated $148.6 million. Regeneron’s CEO got $95.3 million; UnitedHealth Group’s Dave Wichmann got $83.2 million and McKesson’s John Hammergren got $63.2 million.

IMMELT JOINS COLLECTIVE HEALTH: Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt has joined the advisory board of Collective Health, whose software is designed to help manage employee health benefits, according to a LinkedIn post. “I have decided to spend the next phase of my career working on important reform in healthcare, working closely with disruptors and entrepreneurs,” he wrote. Immelt also recently joined the board of athenahealth, which has been considering takeover offers.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING ON:

—Powerful health execs are flocking to Google, STAT reports

—WIRED’s storyon the return of Google Glass, now featuring artificial intelligence