President Joe Biden proposed a $6 trillion budget on Friday, aimed at expanding economic opportunity, improving education and creating a DARPA-like agency tasked with healthcare innovation, among other investments. The budget, which expands on congressional allocations authorized under COVID-19 relief bills, focuses on what Biden’s administration calls “building back better,” a…
UK Government announce extra £250M for ongoing research
The UK Government has solidified its ambitions to become a science superpower by pledging an additional £250 million (€292m) to support research and development. The money, which will come through BEIS, will be used to support pioneering research, providing UK scientists and researchers more recourse to public funds. It will…
Saint Peter's University Hospital readies for May 1 CMS patient event notifications
In March 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized the Interoperability and Patient Access final rule, which includes a section that modifies the Medicare Conditions of Participation that introduces patient event notifications. THE PROBLEM To comply with the patient event notification CoP, hospitals with an electronic health record…
Drs. Vivek Murthy and Rachel Levine advance out of Senate HELP committee
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted on Wednesday to advance the nominations of Dr. Vivek Murthy for U.S. Surgeon General and Dr. Rachel Levine for Assistant Secretary for Health. "Dr. Murthy is a highly experienced, crisis-tested leader who understands the public health challenges our communities are facing…
NHS issued legal challenge over contract with Palantir
The tech-justice firm Foxglove has issued a lawsuit on behalf of news site openDemocracy over a National Health Services deal with the controversial big data firm Palantir Technologies. According to Sky News, the lawsuit claims that NHS England failed to consider the impact of the deal on patients and the…
Report shows 'vast improvement' in state telehealth reimbursement policies
A report released Tuesday by Foley & Lardner LLP found that the COVID-19 pandemic compelled state and federal policymakers to remove restrictions on and expand reimbursement for telehealth and virtual care at unprecedented rates. The firm, which monitors legal policy in the telemedicine and digital health industry, reported that 43…
Biden's COVID-19 plan depends on a data-driven approach for efficacy, equity
President Joe Biden released a comprehensive COVID-19 national strategy on his first full day in office, providing a road map aimed at guiding the United States out of the pandemic. The wide-ranging plan is organized around seven main goals, many of which rely on data-sharing as a core tactic. …
HHS wants hospitals to report vaccination rates alongside inpatient data
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week began asking hospitals to report COVID-19 vaccine administration rates in addition to existing requirements around sending patient data to the agency. The seven new fields are optional, explained a senior HHS official to Healthcare IT News, and intended to provide…
States push back on Trump admin's request for COVID-19 vaccine patient data
Some state governments have resisted requests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to sign data use agreements that would share information about individuals who had received the COVID-19 vaccine. Leaders from several states raised privacy concerns about the idea, with The New York Times reporting that New…
Trump fires CISA Director Christopher Krebs by tweet
President Donald Trump this week fired Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs via Twitter, following CISA’s assurances that the presidential election was “the most secure in American history.” The firing comes on the heels of a joint warning this past month from CISA, the U.S. Department of…
HIPAA right of access: In what looks like a new trend, another costly settlement
Eight may not be enough to get the message across, as the U.S. Health and Human Services has now reached that number of settlements with providers nationwide in the year-plus since it began enforcing HIPAA’s right of access provision. WHY IT MATTERS HHS Office for Civil Rights announced this week…