For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kelly Broadway, 202-808-8853
kbroadway@health-innovation.org
Washington, D.C. – The Health Innovation Alliance released the following statement on the discussion draft privacy bill put forward by Chairman Pallone and Ranking Member McMorris Rodgers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:
“We appreciate the Chair and Ranking Members’ effort to tackle a difficult and complex issue as consumer and patient privacy. This discussion draft further illustrates why HIPAA needs to be updated and modernized. Even with a HIPAA ‘carve out,’ the draft would still further complicate health privacy laws in the United States. Rather than setting a clear, universal law of the land that works for patients, this bill leaves every state privacy law intact, adding yet another layer to the patchwork of laws,” said Brett Meeks, Vice President of the Health Innovation Alliance. “By including a new standard for de-identified data that conflicts with the current HIPAA standard, the bill would stop medical research in its tracks. Adding a new private right of action is simply a gift to the trial bar that will flood the courts and shut down companies.
The right path is for Congress to pass the bipartisan Health Data Use and Privacy Commission Act to provide detailed recommendations to Congress on how best to modernize health data and privacy laws.”
Health Innovation Alliance works to create value for patients by transforming care, improving connectivity, enhancing patient access, and streamlining the regulatory process. In a recently published report, HIA identified solutions to improving and increasing interoperability in health care by 2030.
See download below to learn more.