Agreeing to disagree on safeguarding health info
Politico October 8, 2024
Driving The Day
WEIGHING IN ON A PRIVACY RULE — Providers, health IT groups and reproductive health care advocates largely support a proposed HHS rule to make health data, including public health information, easier to share while protecting patient privacy. But they disagree on the specific wording needed to protect reproductive health care data.
Background: The rule, proposed in July, would standardize how public health departments transmit data among each other and to the CDC via certified protocols. It also creates an exception to the agency’s rules against information blocking for reproductive health care data — meaning providers who refuse to share reproductive data due to a “good faith belief” won’t be penalized.
Key context: Getting an HHS health IT...