Key Congressional staffers, coalition members join relaunch event as group outlines new set of priorities including HIPAA modernization, regulatory reform
Attendees gather for the Congressional staff panel portion of the event
John Michael DeCarlo of IBM Watson (left) discusses being the value of a Health Innovation Alliance steering committee member with the coalition's Executive Director, Joel White (right)
WASHINGTON, DC (February 13, 2019): Health IT Now - the long-running coalition of health industry stakeholders dedicated to using data and technology to improve care - relaunched as the Health Innovation Alliance in a briefing at the annual HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida.
The event featured remarks from a bipartisan slate of leading Congressional staffers including Stuart Portman with the Senate Finance Committee (majority staff) and Lauren Jee with the Office of U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD).
John Michael DeCarlo, an executive an IBM Watson, represented the coalition's steering committee with remarks.
Health Innovation Alliance Executive Director Joel White released the following statement:
"In the nearly 11 years since we launched Health IT Now, we've left a lasting imprint on the healthcare marketplace, but lingering challenges remain. Only four in 10 hospitals have achieved real interoperability, Medicare spends less than one percent on telehealth, and clinicians are saddled with regulatory burdens that leave them spending nearly 40 percent of their time with patients staring into a computer screen."
"We've allowed health IT to digitize the healthcare experience without truly transforming it. Our health system has achieved 'health IT now' without attaining meaningful innovation in how federal programs keep pace with technology to drive better value for patients and improve access to care. Health Innovation Alliance will hit the ground running with a bold agenda to disrupt the status quo; engineering a marketplace where innovation thrives, patients hold the keys to their healthcare data, and federal regulations lead us into the future instead of holding us in the past."
Core pillars of the Health Innovation Alliance's advocacy agenda include:
Advance healthcare connectivity: Health Innovation Alliance will continue to lead the fight to promote interoperability, stamp out information blocking, promote open APIs, and reduce needless burdens on providers and developers.
Modernize HIPAA: The coalition will work to ensure HIPAA modernization is included in any consumer data privacy legislation to empower patients, better protect, and encourage the meaningful sharing of data.
Deliver more value and better access to care: Health Innovation Alliance members will advocate for the enactment of payment and delivery reforms that empower individuals to receive care on their own terms, regardless of setting, by the most appropriate healthcare practitioner, at the best available cost.
Reduce regulatory burdens: The Alliance supports an agile regulatory framework that quickly approves, covers, and reimburses for innovative products is needed to ensure the best outcomes for patients, taxpayers, and healthcare providers.
Leverage technology to fight the opioid crisis: The coalition's Opioid Safety Alliance was the driving force behind health IT reforms in the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act signed into law last year. This workgroup will continue as an integral part of the revamped Health Innovation Alliance, fighting to modernize PDMPs, break down the electronic wall between patients’ substance use history and the rest of their medical record, and reimburse for technology-enabled treatment options.
Along with its expanded list of priorities, the group announced that it is accepting a limited number of applications for participation in its newly formed Innovation Connector, which will link investors and emerging companies with federal policymakers to facilitate meaningful conversations.
Health Innovation Alliance also rolled out a diverse slate of new members including: Asymmetrik, BabyNoggin, Cambia Health Solutions, CaptureProof, Continuous Precision Medicine, H20.ai, Inspire 11, Memotext, Neurotrack, PharmD Live, SeeThru, Sitka, Ultrasee Corp, Verily Life Sciences, and Virtual Physical Therapists.
Find additional resources from today's event below: