Government & Policy

The collaboration between Estonia and Finland was showcased in the newest issue of the HIMSS Insights eBook.

Gould, currently the director general for digital and media policy at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, will join the unit this summer.

The National Coordinator talks 21st Century Cures, information blocking, Apple, consumerism, FHIR, open APIs and new business models he sees emerging amid the "overarching theme of human choice and freedom and dignity."

New HIMSS Media research finds that nearly 75 percent of hospitals are beyond the basic level of interoperability, that best practices for information sharing are emerging and half are gearing up for APIs and FHIR.

The Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS) officially launched on April 1, 2019, in Hong Kong. Consumers may now choose to purchase Certified Plans as offered by the participating insurance companies.  The scheme is a policy initiative implemented by the Food and Health Bureau to regulate indemnity hospital insurance plans offered to individuals, with voluntary participation by insurance companies and consumers. To alleviate the strain on the public healthcare system, especially during peak periods such as winter surge, Certified Plans under the VHIS have a number of standard features for increasing consumers' confidence in purchasing hospital insurance, thereby facilitating their use of private healthcare services when necessary. At the launch ceremony of the VHIS last week, the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, said that the VHIS will provide individual indemnity hospital insurance. To tie in with the publicity slogan "Choose with Confidence," all Certified Plans under the VHIS must meet the benefit standard prescribed by the scheme, including standardised policy terms and conditions, benefit coverage and benefit amounts. The features of Certified Plans include: Guaranteed renewal up to the age of 100 regardless of change in the health conditions of the insured persons (without reunderwriting); No limit on "lifetime benefit"; Coverage extended to cover unknown pre-existing conditions and day case surgical procedures (including endoscopy), etc.; Tax deduction for taxpayers who purchase Certified Plans for themselves and/or specified relatives and pay the premium on or after April 1, 2019; and Transparency on the premiums of Certified Plans. The premium schedules are accessible on the VHIS website. According to an official statement by the VHIS, the VHIS Office will continue work on the registration of participating insurers, vetting of individual indemnity hospital insurance plans for certification of compliance status, enforcement of scheme regulations, etc. Currently, there are 36 companies registered on the list of VHIS Providers on the VHIS website.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently announced the appointment of a Public Sector Data Security Review Committee to conduct a comprehensive review of data security practices across the entire public service. The committee will look at measures and processes related to the collection and protection of citizens’ personal data by public sector agencies, as well as by vendors who handle personal data on behalf of the government, according to a statement issued on March 31 by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Mr Teo Chee Hean will be the chair for the committee, which also includes private sector representatives with expertise in data security and technology. Ministers involved in Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Mr S Iswaran, Mr Chan Chun Sing, and Dr Janil Puthucheary – will also be part of the committee. The committee will review how the government is securing and protecting citizens’ data from end to end, including the role of vendors and other authorised third parties. It will also recommend technical measures, processes and capabilities to improve the government’s protection of citizens’ data, and response to incidents. An action plan of immediate steps and longer term measures to implement the recommendations will be developed as well. International experts and industry professionals, from both the private and public sectors, will also be consulted by the committee, and an inter-agency taskforce formed by public officers across the entire public sector will support the committee. Although security measures such as the Internet Surfing Separation policy in 2016 and the disabling of USB ports from being accessed by unauthorised devices in 2017 have been implemented across the public sector to safeguard sensitive data, the PMO said that the review is “essential to uphold public confidence and deliver a high quality of public service to our citizens through the use of data.” The Public Sector Data Security Review Committee was appointed in light of a series of four data-related incidents that occurred to the Health Ministry in the past 10 months. Notably, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) also said in a statement on March 30 that one of its vendors, Secur Solutions Group (SSG), reported that there was more unauthorised access to the personal information of 800,000 blood donors as previously reported. The data was uploaded online and left unsecured over a period of two months. The Committee will submit its findings and recommendations to the Prime Minister by November 30 2019.

The “Bringing Predictive Analytics to Healthcare Challenge” is the third in a series designed to encourage innovators to focus on healthcare. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock unveiled plans for the creation of a new unit called NHSX earlier this year.

The CMS Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge stems from the Trump administration's recent call to boost AI innovation in the U.S.

The insurance group says it's supportive of more data sharing, but says CMS' timeline for API-enabled access is too aggressive.