Earlier this week U.S. Rep Tim Murphy from the 18th district in Pennsylvania introduced a bill to integrate medical records for addiction treatment with the rest of the patients’ electronic medical record. Today, two senators announced bipartisan legislation that would do something similar for psychiatric patients. But the bill would add the extra incentive of federal incentives to support the cost of digitizing them.
The Improving Access to Behavioral Health Information Technology Act from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) seeks to improve “the coordination and quality of care for Americans with mental health, addiction, and other behavioral health care needs.”
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
It would authorize Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center to give incentive payments to behavioral health care providers to adopt EHRs.
Although $37 billion was distributed to healthcare providers as incentives to shift to or update EHR systems as part of the HITECH Act, the behavioral health community saw none of that, the news release claims.
A similar bill cosponsored by Congresswomen Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas) and Doris Matsui (D-California) is making its way through the House.
The need to provide easier access to all of a patients’ information is an issue most people can agree on. But much like the push to integrate substance abuse treatment data, it prompts valid concerns about the security of this information given the ransomware attacks and data breaches that have become so commonplace in healthcare in recent years. Supporters of the new legislation would argue that the risk of prescribing a treatment plan to patients without the benefit of their behavioral health history could lead to drug interactions. Armed with that information, clinicians could tailor a treatment that best fits their physical and mental health needs.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Another consideration is the fact that the behavioral health industry is so fragmented. Many psychiatrists run a private practice. If the new legislation takes their voice into consideration, that would be the best way forward. It seems more logical that this group would take a wait and see approach.
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