December 31, 2020
Maverick's Update
Only What Matters in Health Information Policy
Happy New Year’s Eve! Last week, Maverick Health Policy said we would announce whether the year-end spending bill and economic stimulus package that passed the House and Senate actually became law. It did. Feel free to use that as an excuse to pop some bubbly.
There isn’t much fresh news to report this week -- but we did want to flag this Q4 list of digital investments -- some interesting health care innovation acquisitions happened at the end of this year. We are also preparing for another round of virtual conferences -- Fierce Healthcare has a nice list of 2021 events.
Thank you for reading and for the amazing support from colleagues and new acquaintances this year. We look forward to having more original thoughts in 2021. For now, Maverick is sharing some 2020 highlights.
One Thoughtful Paragraphs From 2020
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
March: President-elect Biden believes exchanging health data is a matter of life and death
August: How Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris feels about big tech
November: Ron Klain named Chief of Staff (he authorized cell phone tracking during Ebola)
BIG TECH
January: Explosion of new consumer-facing tech for health care
March: Technology is rushing in to solve the COVID-19 crisis
October: House Judiciary Committee issues big tech antitrust report
October 29: Big tech executives are in health care positions of power
CONTACT TRACING
May 1, May 14, May 21 Contract tracing may be mandatory, may or may not use technology, and may be prone to cyberattacks
HEALTH DISPARITIES
June: COVID-19 brought attention to health disparities
October: NIH’s National COVID Cohort Collaborative Data Enclave
INTEROPERABILITY
March: Snapshot of CMS Interoperability Rule
April: New timeline and new information blocking rule penalties proposed
LAB TESTING
April: Public health experts suggest standard electronic form for lab test reporting
September: Data-related takeaways from Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article on lab testing
October: Rockefeller Foundation’s state and local COVID-19 Testing Solutions Group
November: First at-home lab test gets Emergency Use Authorization that requires a mobile app so individuals can report COVID-19 results to public health authorities
PRIVACY
February: Privacy rules struggle to keep pace with technology
March: Relaxing HIPAA for telehealth and privacy risks come with modern health care tools
June: Privacy of consumer data proposals in Congress are well-intentioned bad ideas
August: eHI and CDT offer their Consumer Privacy Framework for Health Data
FEDERAL AGENCY ACTIVITY
CDC
July: CDC Director Redfield asks Congress for funds to modernize public health data system
September: CDC makes progress on electronic case reporting
FCC
May: FCC funds allow non-profit health care providers to offer telehealth
FDA
July: Technology Modernization Action Plan public meeting
September: FDA Digital Health Center of Excellence announced
HHS
July and December: Hospital COVID-19 reporting to healthdata.gov
ONC
January: Several takeaways from the (pre-COVID-19) ONC Annual Meeting
April: Multiple health information technology projects focused on COVID-19 solutions
October: 3-year cooperative agreement with the American Board of Family Medicine to see if doctors are using / appreciating health IT
November: ONC’s 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan