When
Americans
step
into
the
voting
booth
(or
fill
out
their
mail-in
or
absentee
ballots),
many
will
be
aware
of
how
this
election
could
impact
healthcare
issues
like
abortion
rights
or
the
Medicare
trust.
But
the
vast
majority
won’t
realize
that
this
election
could
affect
healthcare
data
interoperability,
pointed
out
Arcadia
CEO
Michael
Meucci.
“I
don’t
think
that
the
average
American
understands
how
a
specific
administration’s
view
on
data
sharing
interoperability
directly
impacts
them,”
he
declared
last
week
during
an
interview
at
the
HLTH
conference
in
Las
Vegas.
For
example,
an
administration
that
is
supportive
of
open
data
sharing
could
lead
to
better
care
continuity,
improved
outcomes
and
lower
costs.
An
administration
that
has
a
more
restrictive
approach
to
data
sharing
may
do
a
better
job
of
addressing
some
Americans’
privacy
concerns,
but
it
could
also
lead
to
fragmented
care
and
slower
innovation
timelines,
Meucci
explained.
When
it
comes
to
healthcare
data
interoperability,
there
is
common
ground
across
both
sides
of
the
aisle,
he
noted
—
both
presidential
candidates
agree
that
there
needs
to
be
more
government
action
to
curtail
anti-competitive
behavior
and
data
blocking.
But
they
might
not
see
eye-to-eye
on
how
to
go
about
this,
Meucci
noted.
“There’s
been
tremendous
progress,
in
my
eyes,
made
over
the
last
three
to
five
years
on
the
launch
of
the
quality
health
information
networks,
as
well
as
on
TEFCA.
But
there’s
a
lot
of
work
still
to
do,”
he
explained.
Meucci
said
that
many
healthcare
organizations
“have
built
a
lot
of
dependency”
on
federal
data
sharing
regulations
that
have
been
established
in
the
past
few
years
—
especially
provider
organizations
that
rely
on
these
measures
to
ensure
they
can
treat
their
patients
in
a
timely
manner.
“If
we
roll
that
back,
we
might
get
sent
back
to
the
drawing
board
of
how
to
drive
sustainable,
cost-effective
and
patient
centered
data
exchange,”
he
remarked.
He
added
that
there’s
no
guarantee
that
Kamala
Harris,
if
elected,
would
continue
to
advance
data
sharing
policies
that
require
healthcare
organizations
to
cooperate
with
each
other.
She
is
different
from
Joe
Biden,
but
“we
know
that
there
may
be
some
common
threads,”
Meucci
noted.
If
Donald
Trump
gets
elected,
his
administration
may
want
to
roll
back
some
of
these
data
sharing
requirements
in
the
name
of
smaller
government,
though
this
isn’t
certain,
he
said.
Looking
back
at
Trump’s
presidency,
there
was
“a
lot
of
focus
on
private
innovation
in
healthcare,”
Meucci
pointed
out.
“You
saw
that
with
the
DCE
contract
model,
and
that
drove
a
bunch
of
private
investment
and
technology
innovation
in
healthcare.
I
think
that
on
a
very
optimistic
note,
I
actually
think
both
administrations
will
be
good
for
continued
healthcare
innovation,”
he
declared.
Photo:
LeoWolfert,
Getty
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