Brett Meeks spoke with Inside Health Policy regrading the newly proposed rule from HHS on technology used in health care.
Brett Meeks, executive director of the Health Innovation Alliance, said the proposed acquisition regulation rule and the recently proposed HTI-2 rule are directly related.
“What they’re saying is HHS money can only be used to purchase certified products,” Meeks wrote. “That means products that are certified according to the proposal in HTI-2 and elsewhere.”
“Your doorbell rings, it is a group of dudes in ties saying, ‘Hey, we’re the government. We’re here to help,’” Meeks said. “You’re going to be like, ‘What’s going on? This doesn’t look helpful.’ If those guys come in your house and say, ‘Hey, let’s look at all your TVs. You have an LG TV, the government actually only likes Samsung TVs, so you’re going to need to change that to a Samsung,’ that is what ONC is proposing to do with different types of health information technology.”
“Maybe it’s only Medicare and Medicaid [grantees],” Meeks said. “But Medicare and Medicaid is everywhere. That’s the whole country. You have to be cautious where you want government dictating what you can and can’t buy.