Will Opening Health Data Floodgates To Patients Help Save Money And Lives? CMS Hopes So.
CMS wants to make patients' data more accessible to them and to third-party tech innovators, with the eventual goal of making health data as easy to pull up as any other app on a cellphone.
Stat:
The Government Wants To Free Health Data. Will That Unleash Innovation?
In health care, breakthrough cures are no longer just hidden in the innumerable mysteries of biology and chemistry. Increasingly, they are locked away in a place even harder to access: electronic patient records. These files could help establish which patients, with which backgrounds and disease characteristics, respond best to certain therapies — secrets that are often carefully guarded in service of patient privacy, and private profit. (Ross, 3/29)
In other administration news —
Modern Healthcare:
HHS Lag In Publicizing Comments On Faith Rules Could Violate Law
HHS has delayed posting comments on rules aimed at protecting individual providers who refuse care based on religious beliefs. Legal experts and industry stakeholders say that places a veil over what's supposed to be a transparent process and could put the agency in a legal bind. ...On Tuesday, comments were due on the proposed rule. HHS received 72,000 comments. In the past, HHS has posted comments as they come in. (Dickson, 3/28)
