Would anybody be interested in a brief meeting to review the language together and submit our comments? No worries if not, but could be helpful to have a group of experts instead of reading alone.
Update: [4:17PM ET] I spoke with Adriane Casalotti, Chief of Government Affairs at NACCHO. She's working with a data group that is going to submit a comment to show support for the draft bill. We're also planning for her to give an update to our CoP at the next meeting. Let me know if you have any questions for her.
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Angie McPherson
Website Specialist
National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
Washington, DC DC
202-888-0439
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-30-2019 07:44
From: Chris Collinge
Subject: Heads Up: Senate HELP Committee Looking for Feedback on Enhancing Health IT
This is great news for improvements to Public Health and Health IT. Keeping fingers crossed for this summer.
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Chris Collinge
Director of Information Technology
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certified
Orange County Health Department
Orlando FL 32809
(407)858-1474
Original Message:
Sent: 05-29-2019 13:33
From: Angie McPherson
Subject: Heads Up: Senate HELP Committee Looking for Feedback on Enhancing Health IT
Hello LHIT, the Senate HELP committee recently introduced a bipartisan draft bill to reduce healthcare costs that would also attempt to enhance health IT by modernizing public health data systems, supporting strong cybersecurity practices, and studying gaps in HIPAA compliance.
The bill targets five areas:
- Improving public health
- Banning surprise medical bills
- Speeding low-cost generic drugs to market
- Increasing transparency
- Enhancing health information technology
It's expected to be a large piece of legislation. Senator Lemar Alexander is aiming to get the package through the committee in June and to the Senate floor by July. You can find an article on NPR and Patient Engagement HIT for more context. There's also section-by-section analysis available from the committee.
The HELP committee is currently seeking feedback on the discussion draft until June 5 at 5 pm ET. I wanted to share with this group, in case you have any comments you'd like to send along.
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Angie McPherson
Website Specialist
National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
Washington, DC DC
202-888-0439
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