What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Does that include the Super Bowl? Can we talk about our observations of Taylor Swift as she watches her man Travis Kelce or not? Should we admit that legal sports betting on popular apps is at an all-time high just when gambling addiction treatment is less available? We wonder if the hush-hush backdrop is why Usher is doing the halftime show. His album Confessions is full of things he admits but may not want people repeating. We explain in the One Thoughtful Paragraph how keeping things secret is a big topic in health information policy this week too.
Shhhh… please keep this news secret:
- Oracle hired former CMS Administrator Seema Verma to lead its electronic health records business.
- This week, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and ONC launched the Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative to make it easier to share and study behavioral health information. With $20 million devoted to the initiative, one goal is to better integrate behavioral health data with primary care and other physical health services.
- An op-ed in STAT News explains that AI “assurance labs” — where AI model developers can test AI models with the support of regulators – may help only the elite, well-resourced institutions that are already advanced in their AI utilization. The authors suggest a HITECH-like infusion of government funding (HITECH funneled $35B to providers to invest in electronic medical record systems) to provide technical infrastructure and assistance to low-resource health care providers.
About the same time Joe Namath and the 49ers won the Super Bowl in 1969, Congress passed several laws to support substance use disorder treatment programs. It was back when drug use was verboten and there was serious social stigma related to getting treatment for abusing drugs and /or alcohol. To encourage people to get treatment, Congress prohibited the sharing of behavioral health records without patient consent. These confidentiality protections were uncreatively referred to as 42 CFR Part 2, and they remained almost totally unchanged for 50 years. Then three things happened – the opioid crisis, Jessica Grubb’s overdose, and the pandemic’s increase in overdose deaths – which meant that it was time to re-think keeping those behavioral health records out of the regular medical record. This week, HHS announced a final rule to make sure substance use disorder records are shared with treating providers while keeping them from being used for prosecution or discrimination. So now that’s over, we can all focus on the big game. For you gamblers out there, we predict that either the Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers will win.
