HIA Calls for Clarity and Commonsense in HHS Acquisition Rule

The Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) provided feedback to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding their health information technology acquisition regulation proposed rule. HIA’s comments highlight issues with the implementation and impact of this rule and the cost of certification requirements.

“Recent efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services should set off alarms for everyone in the health IT space. HHS has signaled it wants to specify the types of technology purchased and operated by organizations using federal spending. But the Department has been silent on how far the proposal extends, and if this rule or subsequent rules will mandate requirements across the health care industry,” said Brett Meeks, Executive Director of the Health Innovation Alliance.

Unlike previous modernization efforts, like electronic health records whose adoption was paid for with new payments to digitize health information, this proposal does not have new funding. Traditionally, Congress, when expanding government programs, provides funding to help with implementation; however, with this proposed rule, organizations will be left to figure out how to meet the new technology requirements and continue to provide existing services or choose between the two.

HIA is concerned the private sector will be forced to spend millions in compliance, resulting in smaller, innovative technology companies losing market share to larger companies favored by government and compliance attorneys. HHS must clarify where these requirements start and stop so the health care industry can prepare and limit the impact of this rule on grantees providing public benefits.

“HHS has plenty of ideas but has failed to think through how organizations and the market can accomplish them. Mandating technology through regulation sets the pace of health care innovation to the speed of government, The only way the health care industry and health technology developers can plan to comply with this is through clear guidelines and resources. No one should have to choose between providing services to their communities or updating their software to the brand HHS has dictated,” said Meeks.