“Someone help me, please!” This isn’t just the cry of health policy consultants. This quote is from the latest sequel movie opening today: Alien: Romulus. One of the reasons why the monsters in these movies are so scary is because they are so different from anything humans are used to dealing with on Earth. In the One Thoughtful Paragraph below, I discuss what is alien to the health care industry that recently popped up in new regulations.
Some other news highlights — and only one of these stories could be considered scary:
- This is the scary one: The FTC launched an investigation of HeHealth’s AI-enabled sexually transmitted disease-detection app – Calmara – which takes photos of a man’s special parts to diagnose when something is, um, not ok. As a result of the investigation about its marketing claims and privacy practices, the company agreed to shut down the app, refund users and remove their data.
- HealthLeaders published a Top Healthcare Trends of 2024, showing how shifting regulations are impacting the industry and how digital disruptors and transformation are key competitive factors.
- Health Catalyst, a healthcare data and analytics company, acquired Lumeon, a company designed to improve care coordination.
“Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.” Android Ash, a human-like droid in the original Alien movie, says this to Sigourney Weaver’s character about the death-defying, acid-spraying creature from outer space. This is not a perfect analogy to the latest HHS proposed rule, but the new mandate is, for sure, alien. Late last week, HHS published a proposed rule that would require all healthcare providers and health plans that receive HHS funding to use certified health IT or, at a minimum, adhere to ONC standards. The proposed rule, which has a 60-day comment period, would apply to all solicitations and contracts, issued by or on behalf of HHS entities, that involve implementing, acquiring, or upgrading health IT used (1) for the direct exchange of individually identifiable health information between agencies and non-Federal entities, or (2) by healthcare providers, health plans, or health insurance issuers. Healthcare providers’ electronic medical record vendors (e.g., Epic) were already going through the ONC certification process due to financial incentives for hospitals and clinicians in the Medicare program, but this process would be new for health plan IT vendors. So, this new requirement is officially “alien” to health plans – but we believe there is no accompanying acid spray. In the original Alien movie, a character says “In space, no one can hear you scream.” This is not true on Earth, we checked after this new rule came out.
