The Washington Debrief
provides CHIME members weekly news and information related to important healthcare IT legislative, regulatory and political developments in Washington, D.C.
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Volume 5, No. 28
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July 31, 2017
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Join CHIME in Giving Feedback on Reducing Red Tape in Medicare
Key Takeaway: Last week the House Committee on Ways and Means
announced their Medicare Red Tape Relief Project, a new initiative that aims to deliver relief from unnecessary and burdensome mandates. These barriers impede innovation, drive up costs and ultimately stand in the way of delivering better care for Medicare beneficiaries.
Why It Matters: The
effort closely aligns with many of the Requests for Information (RFIs) that have been included in recent rulemaking from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) about how to reduce the regulatory burden on the provider community.
As part of the three-step initiative, the committee is asking stakeholders to weigh in on:
- How Congress can deliver statutory relief from the mandates established in law through legislative authority.
- How Congress can work with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price, M.D., and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma to deliver regulatory relief through administrative action.
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WORKING FOR YOU IN WASHINGTON
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Leslie Krigstein
VP Congressional Affairs, CHIME
Mari Savickis
VP Federal Affairs, CHIME
Thoughts, Questions or Comments? Please contact
Leslie
or
Mari
Office Hours: 9 am - 5 pm
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CHIME will provide feedback to the committee. We invite CHIME members and Foundation firms to join our new workgroup on
Regulatory relief and imaging "Appropriate Use" criteria. Calls are scheduled for Fridays at 11:30 ET on Aug. 4, 11 and 18. Regulatory relief is a broad category and we are interested in hearing from members on how CMS and Congress can make changes that reduce regulatory burdens and improve your ability to care for patients. Please email
policy@chimecentral.org if you are interested in joining.
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New Bill Would Extend EHR Incentives to Behavioral Health
Key Takeaway: A
bill introduced earlier this month would authorize the CMS Innovation Center to incentivize behavioral health providers to buy electronic health records (EHRs).
Why It Matters: While the Meaningful Use program spurred widespread adoption of EHRs, behavioral health workers were not eligible for incentives.
The bipartisan
bill introduced by Representatives Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) would create a demonstration project to incentivize adoption and use of EHR technology by psychiatric hospitals, community behavioral health centers, residential and outpatient mental health and substance use treatment facilities, and clinical psychologists and social workers.
Similar efforts by Congress to expand the Meaningful Use program in the past was met with resistance from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for costing potentially billions of dollars.
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OCR Revises Wall of Shame Tool
Key Takeaways:
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announces a revised web tool depicting reported breaches (otherwise known as the "wall of shame").
Why It Matters: According to OCR, their HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool (HBRT) features improved navigation for both those looking for information on breaches and ease-of-use for organizations reporting incidents. The HBRT makes information about entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that are involved in breaches of health information of 500 individuals or more publicly available. New features of the HBRT include: enhanced functionality that highlights breaches currently being investigated and reported within the last 24 months; a new archive that includes all past breaches and information about how those breaches were resolved; improved accessibility to additional breach information; and advice for consumers.
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NIST Chicago Workshop on Workforce Issues
Key Takeaways:
Workshop on Cybersecurity Workforce Development is being held Aug. 2 at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
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NIST Offers Guidance on Bluetooth Security
Why It Matters: NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has published Special Publication
(SP) 800-121 Revision 2, Guide to Bluetooth Security, to provide an updated overview of Bluetooth wireless technology and to discuss related security concerns. The publication will help guide Bluetooth implementers, such as systems engineers and architects who design and apply Bluetooth wireless technologies. It will also help those who oversee and review use and security of Bluetooth within their organizations.
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House Bill Would Give Authority to HHS to Expand Telehealth in Medicare
Key Takeaway: Two members of the House Telehealth Working Group introduced a bill last week to encourage the expansion of telehealth in the Medicare program.
Why It Matters: Efforts to expand telehealth have received pushback from CBO for the perceived increase in healthcare costs with additional access to telehealth services. CBO may be more supportive of this policy because each measure will have to be signed by the Secretary of HHS attesting that it saves money and it will cost the federal government less than some other proposals.
Introduced by Representatives Bill Johnson (R-OH) and Doris Matsui (D-CA),
the Evidence-Based Telehealth Expansion Act of 2017 would allow the Secretary to review existing services in the Medicare program to determine which are appropriate for telehealth and waive Medicare coverage restrictions if the service improves quality of care or reduces costs. The Medicare actuary would have to certify that the move would save money.
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Future of Healthcare Reform Uncertain
Key Takeaway: Despite surpassing early procedural hurdles, the Senate was unsuccessful in passing a few different versions of a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) or "Obamacare."
Why It Matters: Given the challenge to obtain a majority in the Senate, the next steps for healthcare reform are uncertain. If, as some of the dissenting Republicans have requested, bills are drafted in committee, then there may be some potential for health IT-related items to be considered.
The Senate was able to move forward to debate the various healthcare reform proposals after Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote. Each of the proposals with varying degrees of repeal policies subsequently failed by various margins.
CHIME will continue to monitor the status of healthcare reform developments and keep members apprised of potential implications for health IT.
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FDA Announces Steps to Advance Digital Health and Empower Consumers
Key Takeaways: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner
announced it is seeking applicants for a pilot program allowing digital health developers to be pre-certified as quality coders.
Why It Matters: FDA's new Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, M.D., announced the new pilot as part of the agency's move to reorganize the way they approach the digital health sector. The pilot is part of a larger Medical Innovation Access Plan focused on digital health innovation. The agency will accept applications from developers beginning Aug. 1 and will choose nine on Sept. 1.
They also announced FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health is publishing its
Digital Health Innovation Action Plan to provide details and timelines for an integrated approach to digital health technology and the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act.
Gottlieb states, "Through these and other steps, FDA will help innovators navigate a new, modern regulatory process so that promising, safe and effective developments in digital health can advance more quickly and responsibly, and Americans can reap the full benefits from these innovations. These efforts are just one part of a much broader initiative that FDA is currently undertaking to advance policies that promote the development of safe and effective medical technologies that can help consumers improve their health. Our goal is to make sure that FDA has the most modern and efficient regulatory approaches when it comes to evaluating new, beneficial technologies."
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Apprenticeship Task Force Accepting Nominations
Key Takeaway: The Department of Labor (DOL) announces a Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion: Deadline Aug. 8.
Why It Matters: DOL is accepting nominations for individuals to serve on the Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion. The program aims to provide more affordable pathways to secure, high-paying jobs by promoting apprenticeships and effective workforce development programs.
The task force is charged with the mission of identifying strategies and proposals to promote apprenticeships, especially in sectors where apprenticeship programs are insufficient. Those sectors
include manufacturing, infrastructure, cybersecurity and healthcare. Submit nominations by Aug. 8 at
https://www.dol.gov/apprenticeship/task-force.htm
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'New Medicare Card' Transition Progresses
Key Takeaway: CMS moves ahead with plans to remove Social Security Number from beneficiary cards, renaming project the "New Medicare Card."
Why It Matters: CMS is removing Social Security Numbers from Medicare cards to help fight identity theft and safeguard taxpayer dollars, and to meet a statutory requirement under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
Previously, CMS referred to this effort as the Social Security Number Removal Initiative (SSNRI) but since renamed it the New Medicare Card. The law requires CMS complete the transition to the new numbers by April 2019. Cards will be distributed to beneficiaries between April 2018 and April 2019. For more information, visit CMS' website. CHIME's CIO Cheat Sheet on this topic will be updated shortly to reflect this change in name.
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Refresher on Long-term Care Hospital(LTCH) Quality Reporting
Key Takeaways: LTCH Quality Reporting Program Refresher Training Webinar at 4 p.m. Aug. 22.
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Feds Center Seeks Provider Participation
Key Takeaway: The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) fields EHR survey; seeks provider participation.
Why it Matters:
NCHS, which is part of the Center
s
for Disease Control
and Prevention (
CDC) is conducting their
National Health Care Surveys, which include the National Hospital Care Survey
(
NHCS
), National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (
NHAMCS
), and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (
NAMCS
). These nationally representative surveys provide data and information used by Congress, healthcare services researchers and others to shape healthcare policy and the future of healthcare in the United States. NCHS is accepting registration from eligible clinicians (ECs), eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals (EHs) or Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) who intend to submit data to the National Health Care Surveys as part of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs (Meaningful Use)
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Click here to view our
CHIME Public Policy Playbook
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College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME)
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