Digital health companies testified to the House Ways and Means health subcommittee Wednesday morning about the benefits of using wearables and remote monitoring devices to track personal health data.
The discussion about healthcare technology was dwarfed by conversation about healthcare cuts in the reconciliation bill, which is moving through the Senate this week.
Democratic lawmakers resoundingly questioned why the panel was discussing technology to aid healthcare when 16 million Americans stand to lose coverage if the reconciliation bill passes, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. “The house is on fire and we’re talking about holes in the window screen,” Rep. Linda Sanchez, a Democrat from California, said.
At the hearing entitled “Health at Your Fingertips: Harnessing the Power of Digital Health Data,” representatives of WHOOP, a wearable digital health device company, CoachCare, a remote patient monitoring provider, and Epic Systems, a prominent electronic health record company, testified to lawmakers.
The industry representatives discussed the use of wearable devices and remote monitoring devices to improve the health of Americans by giving patients and providers additional insights into their day-to-day health. They stressed the ability of vital sign monitoring to catch diseases earlier and prevent expensive hospitalizations downstream.
Just this week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a House committee he wants Americans to embrace consumer-facing health technology. “We think wearables are key to the MAHA agenda and my vision is every American is wearing a wearable in four years,” he told lawmakers.
RFK Jr. also posted on X that the agency is "launching one of the largest HHS campaigns in history to encourage their use—so every American can take control of their health, one data point at a time."
Kristen Holmes, global head of human performance and principal scientist at WHOOP, said helping people understand their baseline health is paramount to recognizing changes that could signal declining health. Co-founder and CEO of CoachCare Andrew Zengilowski said RPM could save money for Medicare, citing that the cost of monitoring a patient through RPM for 50 years is the equivalent of an ambulance ride and a few days’ stay in a hospital.
Epic touted the 750 health apps its system supports and its role as a driver of interoperability.
Also joining the panel was Winchester Metals President Josh Phelps, who represented the small business perspective of designing healthcare benefits for employees. Phelps described the health coaching benefit he designed for his 46 employees at Winchester Metals and advocated for the preventive healthcare model as a morale booster at the company.
Sabrina Corlette, research professor and co-director of Center on Health Insurance Reforms at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, focused her testimony on the healthcare provisions in the House-passed reconciliation bill, which stands to claw back coverage for 7.8 million Medicaid beneficiaries and an additional 8.2 million people who rely on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for coverage.
Medicaid and ACA cuts in the reconciliation package would prevent millions of people from receiving healthcare and being able to afford consumer digital health devices, Corlette told lawmakers.
“People can’t take advantage of digital health if you cut Medicaid,” Corlette said in her opening statement. Passage of the "one big, beautiful bill" would also impact Medicare beneficiaries and commercially insured people, she said.
Corlette sparred with Republican doctor Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D., North Carolina, who defended Medicaid cuts and work requirements in the bill, saying the program was paying for ineligible individuals like able-bodied people and undocumented persons. Corlette and some Democratic lawmakers, including Sanchez, refuted the claim.
“While we all want the latest and greatest technologies, treatments, cures for our neighbors and our families when they’re in need, we simply cannot have a conversation about innovative healthcare without talking about … the 16 million Americans that are about to lose access to it,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Amid the discussion of reconciliation, Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed support for digital health devices and telehealth. Health subcommittee Chairman Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said he believes wearable devices and digital health technologies are the future of healthcare.
“The U.S. is spending more on healthcare than ever before, but the health of Americans across the country are still getting sicker and sicker [sic],” Buchanan said. “The U.S. has a larger share of people with chronic diseases compared to other countries and more than twice as many Americans with obesity … While these statistics are alarming, we live in a time where Americans have access to better technology than ever before and more health information than ever before to truly be the CEO of your own health.”
Many lawmakers raised the issue of data privacy and asked companies to respond as to how they protect patient data and what role the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act plays in their businesses. CoachCare and Epic are HIPAA-covered entities, and they clarified their enhanced responsibilities with patient data under the law. WHOOP said it handles its data in compliance with HIPAA, though it is not a covered entity.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., raised the issue of law enforcement leveraging period tracking apps to criminalize women for abortion. Jackie Gerhart, M.D., chief medical officer and VP of clinical informatics at Epic Systems, explained Epic’s desire to expand HIPAA to cover more entities. Murphy said he didn’t agree with expanding the law.
Other policy ideas were scantily discussed at the hearing. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., promoted his RPM Access Act. Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, discussed his interest in the Trump administration reviving its MCIT policy for novel devices and said he would introduce legislation to shorten the time between FDA designation of breakthrough devices and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services coverage.