The US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) is led by Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) and is comprised of 22 Senators; 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Under their leadership, the Committee is composed of three subcommittees, which have a broad jurisdiction over our country’s health care, education, employment and retirement policies. Follow them on Twitter @GOHELP.
On Thursday, July 23, 2015 the committee held a hearing on “Achieving the Promise of Health Information Technology: Information Blocking and Potential Solutions.” View the entire meeting. The Senate committee continues with the fourth hearing on the subject to probe for answers on details and the scope of this problem. In a press release from Chairman Alexander, he asked witnesses, “to detail scope of problem and whether government, through electronic health records program, shares in blame.”
“Interested in hearing fr witnesses the extent to which #informationblocking is a problem & the extent to which govt may share in the blame”
— HELP Committee GOP (@GOPHELP) July 23, 2015
Four witnesses testified (read their testimonies) at the hearing. The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative has compiled short bios of each of the speakers.
- David C. Kendrick, MD, MPH, Chair, Department Of Medical Informatics, University Of Oklahoma and CEO, MyHealth Access Network
- Michael J. Mirro, MD, FACC, FAHA, FACP, Past Chair, Medical Informatics Committee, American College Of Cardiology and Chief Academic / Research Officer, Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation
- David C. Kibbe, MD MBA, President And CEO, DirectTrust and Senior Advisor, American Academy of Family Physicians
- Paul M. Black, MBA, President, CEO And Director at Allscripts
Post hearing at Committee Chairman Alexander’s news conference, he stated there would be several recommendations from the committee to the Obama administration including for the delay of MU stage 3 rules. Modern Healthcare is reporting Senate panel will push HHS to delay Stage 3 MU rules. Also reporting Pressure Mounting in Senate to Delay Meaningful Use Stage 3 is HealthData Management.