Washington Debrief: CHIME, Others Urge Federal Coordination in Health IT Regulation

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) this week held a briefing that focused on the impact that massive amounts of data could have on healthcare.  From genome sequencing to droves of Medicare claims data, experts agreed that US healthcare delivery could be revolutionized by “big data.”  Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Intel executive Eric Dishman set the stage for the event, which will result in a BPC policy brief.  Sen. Wyden focused on the power that Medicare data – especially price data – could have on healthcare if it were liberalized and available to the public.  "Healthcare can be transformed by the mountains and miles of data that are growing everyday, but only if it's accessible," Wyden said.  To this end, Sen. Wyden and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) reintroduced the Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability Act (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s756) (Medicare DATA Act), which calls for a database containing Medicare claims and expenditures.  Intel executive Eric Dishman discussed some of the barriers to widespread application of big data to healthcare encounters, citing cost, privacy and security concerns.  He also said a lack of data standardization was a major inhibitor to utilizing big data at the point of care.  And there is also the practical concern of simply organizing and managing the sheer volumes of data that increasingly is available to healthcare providers.  CIOs are in a unique position to share insights to these and related policy discussions on how to tap the promise, overcome the challenges and craft policies that are critical to encouraging innovation and improving health care through big data.

Edited by Gabriel Perna