On November 12th, eHI Assistant Vice President, Policy, Catherine Pugh, presented on the impact of the 2020 elections on health IT policy to the Health Data Unbound virtual conference. Catherine discussed the election outcomes, what is on the to-do list for the lame duck session, and the outlook for the 117^th Congress and Biden Administration health regulatory agenda.

Key takeaways from the presentation:

• Health care was not a top issue to voters, as was expected
• Even more division and gridlock in Congress
• Both parties face internal reckoning between moderates and wings
• Health IT issues have largely been bipartisan – interoperability, telehealth, for example – but division in Congress means it will be difficult to move any legislation
• Not all of President Trump’s health care regulatory actions were partisan. Regulations on transparency, patient health data access and interoperability, and telehealth (among others) had support on both sides of the aisle
• The Department of Health & Human Services under a Biden Administration will focus immediately on COVID-19