The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, the American Medical Informatics Association and a bevy of other healthcare information technology stakeholders want the federal government to tread carefully in its efforts to regulate the industry.
In a letter sent to the Obama Administration last week, more than 100 companies and organizations called health IT oversight "critical," but said it must be "implemented in a balanced way" and over a long enough period of time to ensure that innovation is not stifled, Healthcare IT News reported.
The stakeholders praise the creation of a Food and Drug Administration Safety Innovation Act workgroup, which has been tasked with creating a report for the Health IT Policy Committee by year's end that contains a proposed strategy and recommendations on an appropriate, risk-based regulatory framework for health IT. The workgroup's members include agency officials, as well as individuals representing healthcare vendors, providers and payers, and patient advocates.
"We believe that, by working collaboratively, Congress and the administration can produce a statutory framework for regulation of health IT based on risk while supporting innovation and patient safety," the letter said.
The FDA, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Federal Communications Commission jointly published a request for information in the Federal Register last month asking for "broad input" on what elements should be considered for a risk-based regulatory framework to be proposed for health IT.
To learn more:
- here's the Healthcare IT News article