President Bush Advocates Conversion to
Electronic Medical Records |
4/27. President Bush gave a
speech
in Baltimore, Maryland in which he advocated the use of electronic records in
the health care industry. He also issued an
executive order regarding "the development and nationwide implementation of
an interoperable health information technology infrastructure".
President Bush continued his now ten day old series of speeches on technology
related issues. First, he gave a series of speeches in which he advocated extending the
electronic surveillance provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Then, on Monday,
April 26, he gave a
speech
in which he advocated
universal and affordable access to broadband by 2007, a ban on broadband access
taxes, a permanent research and development tax credit, federal spending on
research and education, easier access to federal land for fiberoptic cables and
transmission towers, and conversion to electronic medical records. On Tuesday, he focused on
the subject of electronic records in the health care industry.
Bush stated that "the health care industry is missing an opportunity, if
patients, in order to make sure they get quality care, have to carry files from
one specialist to the next. It's like IT, Information Technology, hasn't shown
up in health care yet."
He continued that "We're here to talk about how to make
sure the government helps the health care industry become modern in order to
enhance the quality of service, in order to reduce the cost of medicine, in
order to make sure the patients, the customer is the center of the health care
decision-making process."
Bush also issued an
executive order regarding "the development and nationwide implementation of
an interoperable health information technology infrastructure".
This order provides that the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall
establish the position of "National Health Information Technology
Coordinator".
It elaborates that "the work of the National Coordinator shall
be consistent with a vision of developing a nationwide interoperable health
information technology infrastructure that ... Ensures that appropriate information
to guide medical decisions is available at the time and place of care; ... Improves
health care quality, reduces medical errors, and advances the
delivery of appropriate, evidence-based medical care; ... Reduces health care
costs resulting from inefficiency, medical errors, inappropriate care, and
incomplete information ..."
The order also provides that this new office shall "develop, maintain, and
direct the implementation of a strategic plan to guide the nationwide
implementation of interoperable health information technology in both the public
and private health care sectors ..."
Bush also used this speech in Baltimore to review some of the points he has
made in recent speeches regarding making broadband access widely available. He
said that "if we want to stay competitive and innovative, that we've got to have
broadband in every household in America by the year 2007. And there's way to do
that with the government having to provide all the capital. We ought not to tax
access to broadband. If you want something to flourish, don't tax it."
He also said that "we've got to make sure that regulatory policy
in Washington is conducive for
the spread of broadband. For example, one of the things that's probably going to
need to be done is they need to build towers on federal lands in order for
over-the-air internet services to work out into the remote regions of our
country. They don't need a bunch of paperwork and hassle in order to build a
tower on federal land."
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Bush Addresses Privacy of Electronic Medical
Records |
4/27. President Bush also discussed privacy in the context of electronic
medical records in his
speech
in Baltimore, Maryland. He said that
"the federal government has got to make sure the privacy rules are
strong. You're going to hear us talk about medical -- electronic medical
records. And that's exciting. But it's not so exciting if you're a patient who
thinks somebody could snoop on your records, to put it bluntly."
He continued that "there's a lot of people in America who say, good, I
want there to be good information technology in the health care field, I just
don't want somebody looking at my records unless I give them permission to do
so. And I fully understand that. And your records are private, if that's the way
you want them to be. But there's a way to address this, the privacy issue."
Bush, however, did not explain his statement that "there's a way to address
this".
The Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) has promulgated a
rule, pursuant to its
authority under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA),
to protect the privacy of patients. See, the DHHS's
web page titled "Office
for Civil Rights -- HIPAA".
Tommy Thompson, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, accompanied
President Bush on the stage at this speech in Baltimore. Bush praised Thompson.
President Bush's
executive order of April 27 provides for a new "National Health Information
Technology Coordinator" at the DHHS, which will be responsible, among other
things, for ensuring "that patients'
individually identifiable health information is secure and protected."
This order also provides that that this new office will develop a "strategic
plan to guide the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information
technology", and that this plan will "Address privacy and security issues
related to interoperable health information technology and recommend methods to
ensure appropriate authorization, authentication, and encryption of data for
transmission over the Internet".
For more information on medical records privacy, see the
Center for Democracy and
Technology's (CDT) web page
titled "Medical Records Privacy", the Electronic
Privacy Information Center's (EPIC)
web page titled "Medical
Privacy", and the Privacy Rights
Clearinghouse's (PRC)
web page titled "Medical Records Privacy".
Also, Privacilla.org released a
report
earlier this month titled "Health Privacy in the Hands of
Government: The HIPAA Privacy Regulation -- Troubled Process, Troubling Results".
The report argues that electronic medical records, maintained in interoperable
formats, pose a threat to consumer privacy, and that a single federal regulation
promulgated by the DHHS is an expensive and ineffective way to attempt to
protect consumer privacy.
This report states that "Health information in paper files, or in electronic formats
that are not interoperable, is relatively protected because it can not be passed
willy-nilly among different users on different computer systems."
It continues that "One of the goals of the broader HIPAA law was to eliminate
the inefficiency created by incompatible electronic formats. The ``Electronic
Transactions and Code Sets´´ regulation created standards for the content and
format of common health care transactions and named standards-maintenance
organizations to keep them updated. In seeking to create efficiency, it began
the elimination of practical obscurity in health records. This increased the
threat to privacy and the specter of combined, poorly secured databases of
Americans’ health information."
It states that "The final HIPAA privacy regulation contains a variety of
crisscrossing and overlapping policies, some of which even conflict with
privacy. Overall, it reduces consumers' power to demand privacy from health care
providers on the terms they want, replacing consumer power with a uniform
federal regulatory regime."
This report argues that a major source of the medical records privacy problem
is "the persistence and
continuing growth of third-party payers in the health care market" -- employer
provided health insurance and government health insurance programs such as
Medicare and Medicaid, that stand between patients and doctors.
The Privacilla.org report explains that "the average corporate health plan is
relatively generous" and that "many workers are almost fully insulated from the
cost of their health care". Similarly, "patients without private health
insurance are often covered by government health insurance such as Medicare or
Medicaid. These people also pay only a portion of the actual costs of the
medical resources they use".
The consequence, the report argues, its that "In both the employer- and
government-provided health insurance contexts, the patient is not the customer
of the doctor or hospital. Rather, the patient is the beneficiary of an
arrangement by the government or between the employer and the insurer." And as a
result, "As health care costs have continued to spiral upward, both government
and employer-sponsored plans have had to become stingier about what services
they cover. Without the discipline that consumers show with their own dollars
... plans must increasingly review whether patients are seeking appropriate
care. To do this, they must investigate the medical conditions, treatments, and
prognoses of individual patients. They must use patient information to study the
cost-efficacy of treatments." And this, Privacilla.org concludes, "opens up
reams and reams of otherwise private health information".
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FCC Releases NPRM on Unlicensed Use of the
3650-3700 MHz Band |
4/26. The Federal Communications
Commission's (FCC) released its
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [43 pages in PDF] regarding unlicensed
use of the 3650-3700 MHz band. This spectrum may be used by wireless internet
service providers (WISPs).
The FCC announced, but did not release, this NPRM at its April 15, 2004
meeting. See, story titled "FCC Announces NPRM Regarding Unlicensed Use
in the 3650-3700 MHz Band" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 878, April 16, 2004.
The NPRM states that "This band appears particularly well suited
to respond to the needs expressed by the growing number of entrepreneurial
wireless internet service providers (WISPs) who are today bringing broadband
services to consumers in rural areas of the United States who have many fewer
choices for such services than consumers in more populated areas. WISPs have
been asking the Commission for additional spectrum for unlicensed uses to
provide both backhaul service and broadband service to their customers."
The NPRM explains that "the central
proposal of this Notice would allow unlicensed devices to operate in either all,
or portions of, this radiofrequency (RF) band under flexible technical
limitations with smart/cognitive features that should prevent interference to
licensed satellite services. Specifically, we propose to allow these devices to
operate with higher power than currently authorized under Part 15 of the Rules
subject to cognitive technology safeguards."
The NPRM adds that "In order to foster the development of the
unlicensed use that we propose herein, we also seek comment on whether to
restore a uniform primary allocation for all Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) earth
stations in the band regardless of the date the earth stations were authorized,
and whether to delete the existing co-primary allocations for the Fixed Service
(FS) and Mobile Service (MS) in this band. We also seek comment on other options
that could also allow for the provision of licensed terrestrial service in this
band."
This NPRM is FCC 04-100 in ET Docket Nos.
04-151, 02-380, and 98-237. Comments will be due 75 days from date of
publication of a notice in the Federal Register. Reply comments will be due 105
days from date publication in the Federal Register. This publication has not yet
occurred.
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FCC Releases Report and Order Regarding RFID |
4/26. The Federal Communications
Commission's (FCC) released its
Third
Report and Order [21 pages in PDF] adopting regulations allowing the operation
of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems in the 433.5-434.5 MHz band.
The FCC announced, but did not release,
this Third Report and Order at its April 15, 2004 meeting. This item is FCC
04-98 in ET Docket No. 01-278. See also, story titled "FCC Announces Report and
Order Regarding Use of RFID with Shipping Containers" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert
No. 878, April 16, 2004.
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More News |
4/27. The Federal Communications
Commission's (FCC) hosted the first day of a two day conference titled
"Enhanced 911 Coordination Initiative". FCC Chairman
Michael Powell spoke. He
briefly referenced voice over internet protocol (VOIP). He said that "As was
discussed at the Commission’s IP Solutions Summit last month, the agreement between
NENA and the Voice On the Net (VON) Coalition on how voice over IP providers will
deliver location information to PSAPs exemplifies what can be achieved from
public/private partnerships. While the Commission grapples with this issue, it is
encouraging to know that consumers are being provided some basic level of E911
capability for VoIP services." See,
text of speech.
4/26. The European Union published in its website a
document [4 pages in PDF] titled "Interview with Mario Monti, Commissioner
responsible for competition: The EU gets new competition powers for the 21st
Century". It includes statements by Mario Monti (Commissioner), and statements
by Philip Lowe (Director-General for Competition).
4/26. Kamil Idris, Director General of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), issued a
statement on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day.
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Washington Tech Calendar
New items are highlighted in red. |
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Wednesday, April 28 |
The House will meet at 10:00 AM. The House
will consider several non technology related items under suspension of the rules. See,
Republican Whip
Notice.
The Senate will continue its consideration of
S 150, the
"Internet Tax Non-discrimination Act of 2003".
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM. Day two of a two day meeting of the
Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)
Enhanced 911 Coordination Initiative. See,
agenda [PDF]. Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW.
9:30 AM. The
Senate Commerce Committee will
hold a hearing titled "Telecommunications Policy Review". The
speakers will be Adam Thierer (Cato Institute),
Charles Ferguson (Brookings Institution),
George Gilder (Discovery Institute),
Reed Hundt
(McKinsey & Company), and
Raymond Gifford
(Progress & Freedom Foundation). The hearing
will be webcast. See,
notice.
Press contact: Rebecca Fisher at 202 224-2670. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.
10:00 AM. The
House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee
on Telecommunications and the Internet will meet to mark up a bill to reauthorize the
Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act. The hearing will be webcast. Press
contact: Larry Neal or Jon Tripp at 202 225-5735. See,
notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The
House Science Committee's
Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards will hold a hearing titled
"Fiscal Year 2005 National Institute of Standards and Technology Budget:
Views from Industry". The hearing will be webcast. Press contact: Joe Pouliot
at Joe.Pouliot@mail.house.gov or 202
225-6371. Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM. The Senate Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Committee will hold a hearing titled "The Impact of Stock
Option Expensing on Small Businesses". See,
notice. Location: Room 428 A,
Russell Building.
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM. Acting Director of
the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO)
Jon Dudas, and the
International
Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), will host a lunch to celebrate the 3rd
Annual World Intellectual Property Day. The speakers will be Peter Schultz
(pioneer fiber optic inventor) and Nick Taylor (President of the Authors
Guild). See, USPTO
notice and IIPI
notice. Location: Room 902, Hart Building, Capitol Hill.
12:00 NOON. The Progress and Freedom
Foundation (PFF) will host a luncheon. The speakers will
be Richard Notebaert (Ch/CEO of Qwest
Communications), Anna-Marie Kovacs (Janney
Montgomery Scott), Frank Governali (Goldman Sachs),
and Blake Bath (Lehman Brothers). See,
notice
and online
registration page. Press contact: David Fish at 202 289-8928 or
dfish@pff.org. Location: Rotunda Room, Ronald
Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
12:15 PM. The Federal
Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Online Communications Committee
will host a brown bag lunch. The speaker will be Hillary Brill, Legislative
Director for Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA).
RSVP to Evelyn Opany at 202 689-7163. Location:
Piper Rudnick, 1200 19th Street, NW.
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Thursday, April 29 |
The House will meet at 10:00 AM. The House
will consider several non technology related items under suspension of the rules.
See, Republican Whip
Notice.
9:30 AM. The
Senate Judiciary Committee
will hold an executive business meeting. See,
notice.
Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM. The
House Commerce Committee's
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing
titled "Spyware: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You". The hearing will
be webcast by the Committee. See,
notice. Press contact: Larry Neal or Jon Tripp at 202 225-5735. Location: Room 2322,
Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee
will hold a hearing titled "H.R. __, High Performance Computing Revitalization
Act of 2004". The hearing will be webcast. Press contact: Joe Pouliot at
Joe.Pouliot@mail.house.gov or 202
225-6371. Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM. The
Senate Appropriations
Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary
will hold a hearing on intellectual property issues. Location: Room 192,
Dirksen Building.
12:00 NOON. The
Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Reference Information Center (RIC)
will close at 12:00 NOON, and remain closed for the remainder of the day. See,
FCC
notice [PDF].
12:15 - 2:00 PM. The
Forum on Technology and Innovation
will host a luncheon titled "The Impact of Expensing Stock Options on the
Tech Industry". The speakers will be Dick Grannis (VP and Treasurer of
Qualcomm), Karen Kerrigan (Chairman of the
Small Business Survival Committee), and Roberto Mendoza (Chairman of IFL). See,
registration page. Location:
Room 902, Hart Building, Capitol Hill.
12:15 PM. The
Federal Communications Bar Association's
(FCBA) Media Practice Committee will host a brown bag lunch. The topic will be the
Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) television
license renewal process. The speakers will be Barbara Kreisman and staff of the FCC's
Video Division. RSVP to John Logan at
jlogan@dlalaw.com. Location: Dow Lohnes &
Albertson, 1200 New Hampshire Ave., NW.
2:30 PM. The
Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Operations and
Terrorism will hold a hearing to examine Middle East broadcasting. Location: Room
419, Dirksen Building.
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Friday, April 30 |
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. The
AEI-Brookings
Joint Center for Regulatory Studies will host a pair of panel discussions titled
"Intellectual Property Rights in Frontier Industries: Software and
Biotech". At 10:15 AM there will be a panel titled "Biotechnology and
IPR". At 12:00 NOON there will be a luncheon panel discussion titled
"Software and IPR". The speakers will be
Scott Wallsten
(AEI-Brookings),
David Mowery (UC Berkeley),
Dan Burk (University of
Minnesota), and Starling Hunter (MIT). Location: AEI, 1150 17th St., NW, 12th Floor.
12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The Progress &
Freedom Foundation (PFF) will host a panel discussion titled "Accelerating
the Transition to Digital TV: Developments
at the FCC and in Congress". The speakers will be Ken Ferree (Chief of the
Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau),
John Kneuer (National Telecommunications and
Information Administration), Thomas Lenard (PFF), and Steve Sharkey (Motorola).
Lunch will be served. See,
notice and
registration page. Press contact: David Fish at 202-289-8928 or
dfish@pff.org. Location: Room 253, Russell Building,
Capitol Hill.
Deadline to submit applications to the Department of Agriculture's
Rural Utilities Service (RUS) for
Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program grants. Paper copies
must be postmarked and mailed, shipped, or sent overnight no later than April
30, 2004, to be eligible for FY 2004 grant funding. Electronic copies must be
received by April 30, 2004, to be eligible for FY 2004 grant funding. See,
notice in the Federal Register, March 1, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 40, at Pages
9576-9582.
Deadline to submit applications to the Privacy Office
of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for
membership on its new Data Integrity, Privacy, and Interoperability Advisory
Committee. See,
notice in the Federal Register, April 9, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 69, at Page
18923.
Deadline to submit comments to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking
(NPRM) regarding unwanted mobile service commercial messages and the CAN-SPAM
Act. This is CG Docket No. 04-53.
See, notice in the Federal
Register, March 31, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 62, at Pages 16873 - 16886.
Deadline to submit reply comments to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding
auction procedures for the September 15, 2004 Automated Maritime Telecommunications
System Spectrum Auction. See,
notice in the Federal Register, April 20, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 76, at Pages
21110 - 21114.
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Saturday, May 1 |
Deadline for the President to submit a report to the Congress on the
operations of the
Directorate of
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection of the Department of
Homeland Security and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. This report is
required by Section 359 of
HR 2417, the "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004". See,
story titled "Bush Signs Intelligence Authorization Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 799, December 15, 2003.
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Monday, May 3 |
The Supreme Court will begin
a recess. (It will return on May 17, 2004.)
9:00 - 10:30 AM. The American Enterprise
Institute (AEI) will host a panel discussion titled "The Audiovisual
Services Sector in the GATS Negotiations". The audiovisual services sector
includes movies, television, radio. See,
notice. Location: AEI, 12th floor, 1150 17th St., NW.
10:00 AM. The
U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear
oral argument in Typeright v. Microsoft, No. O3-1197. Location:
Courtroom 203, 717 Madison Place, NW.
Deadline to submit reply comments to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in
response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding whether certain
rules should be repealed or modified because they are no longer necessary in
the public interest. The FCC released this NPRM on January 12, 2004. This item
is FCC 03-337 in WC Docket No. 02-313. See,
notice in the Federal Register, March 18, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 53, at Pages
12814-12826.
Deadline to submit comments to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in
response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding broadband
over powerline systems. The FCC adopted this NPRM on February 12, 2004.
See, story titled "FCC Adopts Broadband Over Powerline NPRM" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 836, February 13, 2004. The FCC released the text of this NPRM
on February 23, 2004. This NPRM is FCC 04-29 in ET Docket Nos. 03-104 and
04-37. See,
notice in the Federal Register, March 17, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 52, at Pages
12612-12618.
Deadline to submit comments to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its
Notice of Proposed Rule Making and Order [53 pages in PDF] regarding
cognitive radio technologies and software defined radios. This item is FCC
03-322 in ET Docket No. 03-108 and ET Docket No. 00-47. See,
notice in the Federal Register, February 17, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 31, at Pages
7397 - 7411, and story titled "FCC Releases Cognitive Radio Technology NPRM"
in TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 808, December 31, 2003.
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Tuesday, May 4 |
9:30 AM. The
Heritage Foundation will host an event
titled "Protecting Civil Liberties and Fighting Terrorism: The USA Patriot
Act". The speakers will be James Comey (Deputy Attorney General),
Asa Hutchinson
(Undersecretary for Border Security and Transportation,
Department of Homeland Security), William Fox (Department of the Treasury),
William Bennett (Empower America), and Edwin Meese (Heritage). See,
notice.
Location: Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE.
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