Government & Policy (105)

AI, cybersecurity, patient engagement, reimbursement and rev cycle, virtual care and more. Join the editors of Healthcare IT News, Healthcare Finance News and MobiHealthNews as they forecast new trends and developments for the year ahead.

Muhammad Babar, management information systems officer for the Pakistan Ministry of Health, previews his HIMSS25 talk on strengthening health information systems in the country and the challenges the Ministry has faced with digitization.

To get there, make it simple for patients to access, which is one of a triage of benefits that also include identity consent and security, says Janice Reese, program manager of FAST (FHIR at Scale Task Force).

While many are anticipating longer review periods and larger filing and documentation requirements, the question of what changes will happen at the FTC under the new presidential administration remains, says John Saran, a partner at Holland & Knight.

The program is still rebounding from COVID-19 provisions, but CMS, in incentivizing quality improvements, is raising the bar to reach the top star ratings, says Cindy Henry, director of population health informatics at ZeOmega.

The need for robust coordination on cybersecurity threats will push both parties to cooperate in 2025 despite leadership changes, says Cliff Steinhauer, information security and engagement director at the National Cybersecurity Alliance.

Scattered Spider suspects are between 19 and 22 and use sophisticated ransomware such as ALPHV Black Cat that was used on Change Healthcare and others, says Troy Adams, cyber engagement specialist at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Every country, every government is concerned with protecting data and training its workforce to be prepared for a cyberattack, says Tom Leary, senior vice president and head of government relations at HIMSS.

HIPAA is a baseline to new regulations that include incident reporting within 72 hours, says George Pappas, healthcare cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Intraprise Health.

A fundamental point of star ratings is balancing the interest of patients with that of taxpayers, says Dr. Don Rucker, former ONC head and current chief strategy officer of 1upHealth.

Yiannos Tolias of the European Commission's DG Sante explains the framework that the EU's AI Act provides for ensuring that AI algorithms are trustworthy, unbiased and responsible in their data use, particularly for healthcare.

Josh Wymer, chief health Information and data strategy officer at Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, describes a genAI chatbot the state is using, and discusses the value of trust and data transparency in public and community health.