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Member Task Forces

During eHealth Initiative’s (eHI) 2019 Executive Leadership Summit, eHI members convened to discuss health information technology and legislative priorities for the upcoming year. Through these discussions, four main themes emerged as areas in which eHI should focus its strategy and programming:

  • Interoperability
  • Price Transparency
  • Privacy & Security
  • Analytics

The following includes a more detailed description of each focus area, including background information and eHI’s goals and strategies to address challenges within that area. A critical component of these strategies will be a series of Task Forces in each of the four areas. The Task Forces, composed of eHI members and relevant industry thought leaders, will work toward one or more deliverables that will heavily contribute to eHI’s work for 2019 and ultimately advance industry progress in these four areas. To learn more please contact Claudia Ellison at Claudia.Ellison@ehidc.org or Kayli Davis at Kayli.Davis@ehidc.org. To see upcoming meetings, please see eHI's event page.

 

Interoperability

Problem: The lack of electronic health record interoperability and difficulties in sharing patient data continue to be major barriers to healthcare, resulting in waste, inefficiencies, clinical burnout, and risk to patient safety.  DaVinci specifications and FHIR are core to future interoperability, but many executives in provider and payer organizations do not understand their importance or function in data sharing. It is critical non-technical executives understand these programs, in order to ensure their adoption by 2021.

Goal: eHI will identify best practices and educational materials that can be utilized to promote the adoption of FHIR with executives.

FHIR Communications Task Force: This task force will develop a guidance document providing key messaging to communicate the value of FHIR to targeted stakeholder groups.

Timeline: 5 virtual meetings through January 2020

 

Price Transparency

Problem: Until recently, volume-based care has been the standard in United States healthcare, however, a value-based reimbursement structure is becoming more commonplace. Patients are becoming active consumers of healthcare services, but a lack of cost transparency for those services hinders their ability to make informed decisions about their healthcare. Most patients and their physicians have little to no understanding of the true cost of care or pricing. As consumers face increased out of pocket spending, there is a need for a systematic approach to increase cost transparency and empower consumers.

Goal: Through virtual task force meetings, eHI will develop best practices to educate healthcare executives.

Resources and Presentations:

  • September 16 Presentation and Resources:
    • Innovation and the Member Experience 

Price Transparency Communication Best Practice Task Forces : This group will identify two sets of best practices: 1) 3-5 best practices in educating healthcare providers on the nuances of true cost of pricing and out-of-pocket spending for consumers, using both elective and non-elective procedures; 2) 3-5 best practices in providers and hospitals communicating price transparency to consumers.  Additionally, the task force will review current state and federal initiatives to promote price transparency, including an update on the CMS Price Transparency Rule of 2019. eHI staff will develop a summary of the identified best practices based on task force discussion. Meetings topics to include state and federal initiatives, best practices in educating providers, and best practices for providers to educate consumers.

Timeline:  5 virtual meetings

Targeted participants: payers, providers

Resources and Presentations:

Privacy and Security

Problem: The rise of consumer-facing healthcare websites, mHealth apps, and connected medical devices has raised new privacy and security challenges regarding the collection and sharing of health data. The existing health information privacy regulatory framework, which is built around HIPAA and state privacy laws, was not designed for the rapidly changing digital landscape driving State and Federal agencies to develop regulations. Although the laws are designed to protect all involved, they can create barriers to exchanging and accessing data. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act introduces burdensome obligations, most of which were previously unseen by American companies and several of which present questions about implementation.

Goal: eHI will identify the current regulations and determine how they are supporting consumer privacy and/or negatively impacting consumer directed healthcare companies. This initiative will develop policy recommendations regarding healthcare privacy practices in state and federal laws that are negatively impacting consumer access to their healthcare data.

 

Privacy and Security Best Practices Task Force: This task for will identify best practices for payers, providers, and vendors in removing barriers to exchange and access of data and provide details on current legislation and regulation; and, how they are supporting consumer privacy and/or negatively impacting consumer directed healthcare companies. The task force will also identify potential state associations or healthcare organizations to share intelligence and information on key state privacy and security law developments. Topics to include Best Practices re maximizing security in the rapidly changing digital landscape;  Best Practices surrounding working within the newly revised HIPAA 2.0 Framework; Consumer Access to Healthcare Data - Issues and Challenges with Privacy Regulations.

Timeline: 4 virtual meetings

Resources and Presentations:

Data Analytics: Non-Traditional Sources of Data

Problem: While the healthcare industry has the potential of using non-traditional sources of data in impacting health outcomes and costs, it is less clear how to define, measure, collect, and share this data.

Goal: This initiative will provide guidelines for healthcare stakeholders on the use of non-traditional sources of healthcare data to improve patient and population outcomes.  Through task forces, eHI will identify how non-traditional data such as social determinants of health can be used for artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. Stakeholders will also identify innovative policy and process approaches that will help policy makers understand the value of this data.

 

Data Analytics and Non-Traditional Sources Task Force: This task force will identify best practices regarding access and use of data for social determinants of health, devices and wearables, genetics, patient generated health data, and behavioral health. Task force will also identify challenges, solutions, and usability of data. eHI staff will develop a summary of the identified best practices based on task force discussion.

Timeline: 5 virtual meetings

Resources and Presentations: