Foundation Board Chair Encourages Partners to Attend CHIME Advocacy Summit
4.16.2019
Cletis Earle, CHCIO, Chair, Foundation Board; SVP & CIO, Information Technology Kaledia Health
Do you have a government relations team or a colleague responsible for keeping the company informed about the latest health IT policy developments? As your Foundation Board chair and chair of the CHIME Public Policy Steering Committee, I am pleased to share an opportunity that combines the benefit of membership with the deep connections CHIME has made with leading federal policymakers.
CHIME will hold the second annual Advocacy Summit on June 26-28 in Washington, D.C., and anyone from a Foundation firm can attend at a special rate. The summit will feature some of the most powerful leaders in IT policy in D.C. We have five keynote speakers and panels who will address policy topics that CHIME’s members have identified as their priorities: cybersecurity, telehealth, interoperability and the opioid crisis. This is a rare chance to hear from and network with leaders in Congress, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and more.
Every one of those organizations plays an important role in how CIOs like me do our jobs, and consequently what we will need from our industry partners. For instance, CMS and ONC recently released draft rules to advance interoperability and data sharing; the FDA is reviewing ways to better protect medical devices from cyberthreats; telehealth is getting a boost with Medicare now reimbursing more services; and both the administration and Congress have strongly supported efforts to curb the opioid crisis. Many of these proposed changes are under review and a final version could be released as a law, a final rule or a guidance document.
Here is the lineup of keynote speakers:
- Adam Boehler, deputy administrator for innovation and quality at CMS and director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, who will discuss the role of innovation and technology in value-based care (June 26);
- U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, of the Sixth Congressional District in Ohio, who served as director of the U.S. Air Force’s Chief Information Officer Staff at U.S. Special Operations Command and is a telehealth proponent. He will be joined by CHIME Board member Rusty Yeager, senior vice president and CIO at Encompass Health and a former Medical Service Corps officer specializing in healthcare IT and cybersecurity for the U.S. Air Force, for a fireside chat (June 26);
- Will Smart, a member of the CHIME Board of Trustees and CIO of NHS England, who will share lessons learned from the WannaCry cyberattack in 2017 and NHS’s efforts to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (June 27);
- Kimberly Brandt, JD, principal deputy administrator for operations of CMS and an expert in healthcare compliance, fraud and abuse, who will give an update on Stark reform, the Blue Button initiative and other developments at CMS (June 27); and
- Admiral Brett P. Giroir, MD, assistant secretary for health at HHS and senior adviser to the Secretary for Opioid Policy, with a roundup of the administration’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic (June 28).
ONC’s Don Rucker, senior CMS officials, HL7 DaVinci representatives and policy leaders from CHIME and CHIME’s associations will also present sessions. The Advocacy Summit will include several networking events as well to allow presenters and attendees to meet and mingle.
I hope you and your government relations/policy teams can join me June 26-28 in Washington, D.C. CHIME members, CHIME association members, CHIME Foundation firms and association Foundation firms can attend at a special membership rate; register now under the early-bird pricing and save $200. Non-member provider professionals as well as representatives from non-member firms are welcome to attend, too, at a higher rate.
Information about the CHIME Advocacy Summit, speakers and agenda is available here. To register, click here. If you have any question, please reach out the CHIME policy team at [email protected].