The CDC Has Failed Americans

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kelly Broadway, 202-808-8853
kbroadway@health-innovation.org

The CDC Has Failed Americans
COVID tracking system does not work despite investment of billions of dollars

Washington, D.C. – The Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) issued the following statement ahead of today’s United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing titled “An Update on the Ongoing Federal Response to COVID-19: Current Status and Future Planning.”

“Congress spent billions of dollars upgrading the CDC’s COVID tracking systems, and the CDC has nothing to show for it. There is zero transparency into what the CDC is doing, with the Government Accountability Office finding there are few controls or metrics in place to ensure taxpayers get a system that works to track infections, hospitalizations, and where supplies and vaccines are needed. This is more shocking considering the law requiring a modern CDC data system was enacted more than 15 years ago,” said Joel White, Executive Director, Health Innovation Alliance. “Congressional oversight has been unsuccessful in shaming CDC leadership into progress. Congress should take control and move surveillance out of the CDC to an independent data agency. The CDC has failed to do its job and should be relieved of its duties.”

Draft Privacy Bill Misses the Mark: National Framework is Needed To Work for Patients, not Enrich Trial Lawyers

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kelly Broadway, 202-808-8853
kbroadway@health-innovation.org

Washington, D.C. – The Health Innovation Alliance released the following statement on the discussion draft privacy bill put forward by Chairman Pallone and Ranking Member McMorris Rodgers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:

“We appreciate the Chair and Ranking Members' effort to tackle a difficult and complex issue as consumer and patient privacy. This discussion draft further illustrates why HIPAA needs to be updated and modernized. Even with a HIPAA ‘carve out,’ the draft would still further complicate health privacy laws in the United States. Rather than setting a clear, universal law of the land that works for patients, this bill leaves every state privacy law intact, adding yet another layer to the patchwork of laws," said Brett Meeks, Vice President of the Health Innovation Alliance. "By including a new standard for de-identified data that conflicts with the current HIPAA standard, the bill would stop medical research in its tracks. Adding a new private right of action is simply a gift to the trial bar that will flood the courts and shut down companies.

The right path is for Congress to pass the bipartisan Health Data Use and Privacy Commission Act to provide detailed recommendations to Congress on how best to modernize health data and privacy laws."

Health Innovation Alliance works to create value for patients by transforming care, improving connectivity, enhancing patient access, and streamlining the regulatory process. In a recently published report, HIA identified solutions to improving and increasing interoperability in health care by 2030. Click here to learn more.

Improving Interoperability in Health Care Leads to Better Patient Care & Prevention

New report from the Health Innovation Alliance identifies solutions to improving interoperability

Washington, DC – New technology has made information access and exchange second nature, but the healthcare industry continues to lag. A new report by the Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) released today outlines solutions to meet the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) goal of improving and increasing interoperability in health care by 2030.

 

“How we share data is going to continue to evolve as technology advances. The solutions identified by the Health Innovation Alliance address the key areas that have hampered the flow of health care information. Implementing them will revolutionize how patients interact with the health care system, and how care is provided. If we want to have a better system, we need to act now. The longer we wait, the more catching up we will have to do in the future,” said Brett Meeks, Senior Policy Advisor, HIA.

 

HIA identified six key solutions that would improve interoperability and use of health care data:

 

  • Enabling data to work for patients and providers at the point of care,

  • Leveraging state of the art medical devices to improve patient care,

  • Establishing clear protections from HIPAA penalties for patient information requests,

  • Informing medical research and innovation with better information,

  • Standardizing, collecting, and using social determinants of health data,

  • Improving public health data collection and reporting.

 

The key goal of these solutions is to improve the health care system’s ability to communicate seamlessly with the patient at the center. Whether it be through better patient history or enhancing clinical trials, the results would be better care coordination between providers and patients, increased disease prevention, and health outcomes.

 

Click here to read HIA’s report and learn more about implementing the interoperability solutions.

HIA Statement on Congress Extending Telehealth Policies For Seniors

Washington, D.C. (March 10, 2022): Today the Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) issued the following statement following the U.S. House of Representatives passage of the bill to extend government funding through fiscal year 2022 that includes several extensions of telehealth policies:

“It’s common sense that seniors should have access to health care through telehealth after the end of the pandemic, and Congress is making the right call by extending these policies. Health Innovation Alliance is particularly pleased to see that HSAs can continue to be used to cover telehealth services through 2022.

We look forward to working with Congress to make sure these policies become permanent and that outdated statutory language and antiquated thinking do not stand in the way of access to care and modernization.”

Specifically, the bill will extend the following Medicare policies for 151 days after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency:

  • Allows Medicare beneficiaries to continue accessing telehealth services despite their location and from the comfort of their homes by waiving the geographic and originating site requirements;

  • Allows additional providers like occupational therapists and physician therapists to continue serving seniors virtually;

  • Allows federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs) to be reimbursed for providing telehealth services to seniors;

  • Allows for seniors to access audio-only telehealth services; and

  • Allows for the virtual recertification of hospice care.

The bill also:

  • Delays the in-person visit requirements for mental health services provided through telehealth to beneficiaries for 151 days after the pandemic;

  • Allows for first dollar coverage of telehealth services through health savings accounts (HSAs) for individuals with high deductible health plans (HDHPs) through the end of 2022;

  • And requires MedPAC to issue a report to Congress on Medicare telehealth utilization and expenditures and the HHS Office of the Inspector General to issue a report to Congress on program integrity risks in telehealth – both reports are due by June 15, 2023.