On April 29, 2015, members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee released a revised discussion draft of the 21st Century Cures Act (“Cures”). The draft bill includes a number of provisions intended to facilitate drug, biologic, and medical device discovery and development through greater collection and dissemination of data and the use of information technology. This posts discusses provisions of the “Discovery” title of the bill focused on expanding access to NIH research data (Subtitle F) and “facilitating collaborative research” (Subtitle G).
Continue Reading House Cures Draft Includes Provisions to Expand Access to Data, Facilitate Research

Last month, Washington state enacted legislation requiring coverage of medical services delivered through telehealth technology, making it the latest State to join the growing consensus that telehealth is an important component of efficiently delivering health care.
Continue Reading Washington State Enacts Telehealth Parity Law

In the latest example of Congress responding to increasingly loud industry criticism of the EHR incentive programs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) announced last week the formation of a working group to identify ways to improve EHR.
Continue Reading Senate HELP Committee Announces EHR Working Group

The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) Office of Policy Planning, Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Consumer Protection, and Bureau of Economics recently submitted comments on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC’s) draft Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap (“Roadmap”). As discussed in previous posts, this Roadmap sets forth a ten year plan to develop and implement a nationwide interoperable health information infrastructure. The FTC’s comments focus on (1) creation of a supportive business and regulatory environment that encourages interoperability; (2) shared governance mechanisms; and (3) the advancement of technical standards.
Continue Reading FTC Staff Submit Comments On ONC’s Draft Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap

Teladoc, Inc. started the long road to an IPO yesterday, announcing that it had taken the first step in the process by submitting an S-1 registration statement — the very detailed disclosure document required by regulators — with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Continue Reading Teladoc Embarks on Road to an IPO

In a recently released Data Brief, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) described trends in adoption of Basic EHR and certified EHR in non-federal acute care hospitals from 2008 to 2014.  “Basic EHR represents a minimum use of core functionality determined to be essential to an EHR system.”  “A certified EHR is EHR technology that meets the technological capability, functionality, and security requirements adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services.”  Data cited in the brief are from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology (IT) Supplement to the AHA Annual Survey.

The Data Brief identifies and discusses four trends.
Continue Reading ONC Data Brief Describes Positive Trends in the Adoption of EHR Systems

Last week, the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet held a hearing on “Advancing Telehealth through Connectivity.” The hearing explored the need to expand telehealth nationwide, with a particular focus on rural areas.

Several experts lauded the benefits of telehealth, including helping to lower health care costs…
Continue Reading Continuing Developments on Telemedicine in the U.S. Senate

On April 10th, CMS issued a new proposed rule modifying Stage 2 requirements for meaningful use under the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive program. According to CMS, the rule is “intended to be responsive to provider concerns about software implementation, information exchange readiness, and other related concerns in 2015.” The newly proposed modifications are also intended to “allow providers to focus more closely on the advanced use of certified EHR technology.” This rule is separate from the proposed rule implementing Stage 3 of the meaningful use objectives, which CMS released earlier this month.
Continue Reading CMS Releases Proposed Rules Modifying Stage 2 of EHR’s Meaningful Use Requirements

StartUp Health, a New York-based accelerator, and Rock Health, a San Francisco-based seed fund, each recently released its independent 2015 first quarter report on venture funding and transactional data of the digital health sector. The following are some key observations:

  • Funding is Down Compared to Last Year’s First Quarter. While 2014 was a record-breaking year for digital health funding—increasing by more than double compared to 2013—both reports show that 2015 is off to a slower start. StartUp Health reported a decrease in overall venture funding in the digital health sector from $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2014 to $900 million in the first quarter of 2015, while Rock Health, which uses different reporting metrics, reported a decrease from $700 million in the first quarter of 2014 to $630 million in the first quarter of 2015.

Continue Reading Digital Health Venture Funding and M&A Activity in the First Quarter of 2015

Join Covington for a webinar discussion of issues facing life sciences companies as they increasingly utilize cloud services to collect, aggregate, store and process data as part of our Life Sciences Essentials series.

May 13, 2015
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PDT
4:30 p.m.
Continue Reading Webinar Invite: Moving to the Cloud: Privacy and Other Key Considerations for Healthcare Entities