Premier Offers Insights to Inform Congressional Efforts on Data Privacy

Premier offered insights and policy recommendations to inform the priorities of the newly formed House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Privacy Working Group. In response to a request for information, Premier stressed that the rapid pace of technological innovation in healthcare has strained the boundaries of existing federal privacy standards and the absence of a comprehensive federal data privacy law has led to a patchwork of legal requirements across states that has created burdens for providers, suppliers, payers and patients. In its letter, Premier recommended that the working group focus its legislative efforts on:

• Creating a uniform, predictable federal privacy standard that both spurs investment in innovation and engenders consumers’ trust;
• Clarifying data sensitivity classification and handling requirements by the type of data, rather than the type of entity;
• Incorporating lessons learned from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) about the universal benefit of one-time patient consent for treatment, payment or healthcare operations at the “point of service;”
• Collaborating with private sector experts to develop baseline cybersecurity standards that are rooted in specificity, evolvability and maturity;
• Anchoring cybersecurity guidance to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, which are widely used and developed through public-private consultation;
• Clearly outlining pathways to acceptable data use for the training of AI models at the federal level;
• Clearly defining the authorities available to enforcement authorities; and
• Working with healthcare stakeholders to build a privacy model that uses the business case for trustworthy and secure health technology to incentivize uptake of sector-wide standards.

While there has been interest in Congress passing a comprehensive data privacy law, to date no law has advanced. The formation of the working group by Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Committee Vice Chair John Joyce, MD (R-PA) signals a renewed commitment to revisiting the issue.

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Premier Response to House Energy & Commerce Privacy Workgroup RFI