The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a new proposed rule earlier this month, outlining new standards and requirements for health information technology collection.
As described in the proposal published in the Federal Register on August 9, the goal is to amend the current Health and Human Services Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR) to require health IT procurements to “meet the implementation standards and specifications (standards) adopted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the following sections: Information Technology Procurement and Solicitation Provisions and Contract Provisions.”
As Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Micky Tripathi (who took on the new title after a department reorganization last July) explained in a recent blog post, the move is a key part of the HHS Health Information Technology Regulatory Policy to be released by the Biden Administration in 2022.
The goal of the move — which was done in tandem with HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Finance — is to “establish and oversee a consistent approach across HHS to ensure that health IT requirements in grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and policies and regulatory actions are consistent with HHS-adopted data standards,” Tripathi said.
“By agreeing on standards that enable interoperability, HHS ensures that federal investments do not contribute to the proliferation of proprietary exchange methods and separate data silos that hinder access, exchange, and use of data,” he explained.
“Advancing interoperability through HHS investments can lead to more connected care for patients, as well as more seamless data exchange across other aspects of the health care landscape, such as research and public health,” he added.
In the more than week since the proposed rule was released, a number of technology vendors have offered their views on the HHS tie-up and what it means for the industry. Healthcare IT News received feedback from some of these companies’ top executives, and here’s what they had to say.
The proposed rule “marks a significant step forward in realizing the full value of our nation’s healthcare data,” said Kim Perry, chief growth officer at emtelligent, which develops deep learning technology to derive analytics from structured text.
“By requiring health IT to standardize across all systems interacting with HHS, this initiative not only increases interoperability and reduces inefficiencies, but also paves the way for advanced technologies like NLP and LLM to unlock the full potential of this data at scale,” she added. “This will not only accelerate and improve patient care, but also pave the way for groundbreaking discoveries in clinical research, ultimately transforming the healthcare landscape and driving innovation in treatments and diagnostics.”
Raj Ronanki, CEO of Lyric, which is working to promote the use of AI to simplify care delivery, agreed that “it is encouraging to see HHS taking a proactive approach to ensuring data and systems are protected, thereby protecting people’s rights. As healthcare technology partners, we must have a deep understanding of how to integrate accountability, security, and balance the profound impacts of AI with ethical governance.
“As artificial intelligence and data privacy become increasingly integral to healthcare, the urgency of integrating ethical governance is undeniable,” he added.
Meanwhile, George Pappas, CEO of healthcare security firm Intraprise Health, said he was concerned — “as a citizen, a patient, and a healthcare stakeholder” — that the new order from HHS “could stifle the innovation we need to address legacy costs.”
As he explains, “AI programming models are evolving rapidly, and forcing vendors to adhere to rigid standards could hinder AI’s potential to enhance interoperability. Furthermore, it could place unnecessary constraints on the cybersecurity industry, where flexibility is critical to adapting to emerging threats and more effectively protecting patient data.”
But Kevin Heineman, CISO of Lyric, which develops AI tools for healthcare programs, sees security and information exchange benefits in the proposed IT procurement rule.
“Interoperability in healthcare is critical, but it introduces complexity that can be exploited by malicious actors,” he said. “The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury’s proposal to simplify how healthcare organizations exchange data is a very positive step toward reducing data and system security risks—ultimately making our healthcare ecosystem more secure.”
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the author: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS.
