Mid-week update

Well tomorrow is the big day. The Supreme Court's decision in the ACA constitutionality case is expect tomorrow. The FEHBlog will not wait long to weigh in.

The Wall Street Journal reports that earlier this week the Senate followed the House by approving a compromise version of the Food and Drug Administration user fee bill. The President is now expected to sign the bill. As the FEHBlog previously has explained, this new law will extend the FDA user fee program, which accelerates the approval of new drugs, to generic and biosimilar drugs.  In drugs news, the Chicago Tribune reports that the FDA approved a new obesity drug Belviq for the first time in over a decade. The FEHBlog expect that the plaintiff's bar already is trolling for clients among the people who use this drug.

Health Data Management adds with respect to the FDA user fee bill that

The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services within 18 months of enactment to publish a report “that contains a proposed strategy and recommendations on an appropriate, risk-based regulatory framework pertaining to health information technology, including mobile medical applications, that promotes innovation, protects patient safety and avoids regulatory duplication.” The regulatory strategy and recommendations would be published on the Web sites of the FDA, Federal Communications Commission, and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The HHS Secretary could convene a working group of stakeholders to give input on the strategy and recommendations.

In that regard, the AMA News reports this week that

PremierConnect, created by Premier and available June 25, a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,600 hospitals, will give physicians and health care systems easy access to a wide variety of data, including population information and patient-specific data. The Premier alliance is free to join, and use of PremierConnect is a free member benefit. Doctors can buy technology apps from Premier that present data in focused reports to show specific areas for improvement or action.

PremierConnect databases are aggregates of several data sources, including claims, lab, billing, purchasing and operational data that are updated every 30 days. The data can be queried, based on individual needs or found through pre-generated reports prepared by Premier or other users. The data also include information captured from hospital electronic health record systems.

According to Premier's website, "approximately 200 hospitals, health systems and providers, including large systems operating multiple hospitals, academic medical centers associated with universities, and community-owned hospitals" own the company. Good for them.

In other tech news, AHRQ has posted its 2011 state snapshots which provide State-specific health care quality information, including strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The goal is to help State officials and their public- and private-sector partners better understand health care quality and disparities in their State." The snapshots may be helpful to health plans.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights which enforces the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules has posted its covered entity and business associate compliance audit protocols on the web. The HITECH Act required HHS to establish this audit program which it implemented in 2010.

Finally, the AMA News reports on Aetna's efforts to combat (via litigation) outrageous pricing by out-of-network health care providers. Good luck Aetna.