eHealth Initiative staff and members are regularly meeting with key legislators and congressional staff to educate policymakers on the issues our members are most passionate about.

We have been tackling the opioid epidemic and held a series of hill meetings, led a roundtable discussion, and completed an opioid issue brief. Legislators are asking about our members' use of analytics and data to target at-risk populations and track the opioid crisis. Follow the link to share your organizational initiatives on opioids.

What's happening:

• On June 22, 2018, HR 6, the SUPPORT Patients and Communities Act of 2018 passed the house with 396 ‘yeas’ to 14 ‘nays’. The largely bipartisan bill is co-sponsored by the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative Walden, and a ranking member of the same committee, Representative Pallone. We are waiting to see if the bill passes the Senate. For more information on HR 6 and other opioid related legislation, see the links below. 
   
• In the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s hearing, “Improving the Coordination and Quality of Substance Use Disorder Treatment,” Dr. H. Westley Clark, a Dean’s Executive Professor at Santa Clara University, compared the Opioid Prevention and Patient Safety Act to the Facebook scandal involving Cambridge Analytics. Representative Mullin, the bill’s sponsor, was quick to fight back against that allegation.
   
• At the Senate Finance’s “Rural Health Care in America: Challenges and Opportunities” hearing, Ms. Karen Murphy, PhD, RN, the Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer, and Founding Director of the Glenn Steele Institute of Health Innovation, along with other witnesses, encouraged Congress to help rural hospitals use technological innovation to move away from traditional care delivery and into the value-based payment models. 
   
• The FDA has recently published a document that provides guidance to researchers on the use of EHRs in FDA-regulated clinical trials. 
   
• Ed Simcox, Deputy Chief Technical Officer of the Department of Health and Human Services, will be taking over duties for Bruce Greenstein, the current Chief Technical Officer, who will be heading back into the private sector with the LHC Group. 
   
• Senators will not be getting air miles in August! Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cancelled three weeks of the August Recess. 
   
• The Department of Veterans Affairs may have decided to scrap planned EPIC software instead of paying the multi-million dollar contract for the Medical Appointment Scheduling system. 

Opioid legislation to watch...

• S.2456 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 2.0
• S.581 Jessie’s Law
• S.2680 OCRA
• S.2460 Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act
• S. 2901 Expanding Telehealth Response to Ensure Addiction treatment (eTREAT) Act
• S. 2912 Opioid Addiction Treatment Programs Enhancement Act
• HR. 3528 Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act
• HR. 6 SUPPORT Patients and Communities Act of 2018
• HR. 5311 House Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 2.0
• HR. 3545 Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act

Who should we add to our policy meeting list? Email Emma@ehidc.org