Lawmakers Urge HHS To Clarify Privacy Standards For Mobile Health Apps

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Letter to HHS Secretary Burwell urges clarification of HIPAA standards for connected technologies.

Congressmen Tom Marino (R-PA) led a coalition of lawmakers who sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, stating that progress on promised updated technical compliance guidance for HIPAA has been “sluggish” and “disappointing,” according to Fierce Mobile Health.

The letter was signed by Reps. Marino, Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Renee Ellmers (R-NC), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and Will Hurd (R-TX).

“Today’s letter will hopefully send a signal to HHS that they need to bring their approach to healthcare in line with the technological advances of the 21st Century,” said Marino. “The plodding pace with which they’ve updated HIPAA guidance as it relates to mobile technology is unacceptable. I am hoping that our letter restarts the progress that began in a promising way with their response to our first letter in 2014. More attention to these technologies, and an open dialogue with Congress, presents the potential for improving the doctor-patient relationship, and innumerable beneficial health outcomes.”

According to the letter, HHS has failed to follow through on commitments it made in 2014, including to clarify what tech companies need to do to be compliant and to implement standards to aid them in compliance issues; to specify the requirements for services that store data in the cloud; and to engage regularly with tech companies to help them achieve compliance.

With the explosion of healthcare technology, including new smartphone apps and connected healthcare technology that provide better insight into patient health that can lead to improved patient outcomes, regulations are lagging behind the new technology. And the lack of clarification from HHS regarding the privacy and security standards for this new technology has made healthcare providers wary of adopting it, which is holding healthcare outcomes back. The letter urges HHS to issue new guidelines and to clarify how privacy and security rules under HIPAA apply to connected health technologies.

“We have serious concerns about the consequences of HHS inaction,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “Advances in mobile health technology have the potential to dramatically improve patient outcomes and the accessibility of health care. This innovation is coming at a rapid pace, but your agency has done little to demonstrate it can manage the significance.”

The letter also asked for a Member-level briefing with HHS to review their progress.

DeFazio stated, “Rapidly-growing technology companies are being stifled by slow moving bureaucracy. Despite the fact that HHS made a commitment to Congress that they would take necessary steps to adapt and accommodate the needs of the modern tech community, I’m disappointed by how little progress has been made in the past sixteen months. HHS needs to follow through on their commitment to collaborate with stakeholders and the tech industry.”

HHS released a four-page publication on how HIPAA applies to mobile health apps earlier this month.