Health Information Technology (HIT) Task Force
The Alston & Bird HIT Task Force includes a broad-ranged group of expert attorneys and policy advisors spanning the firm’s offices and practice groups, established to provide a unique perspective and counsel to our clients in this new era of health care. As a cornerstone of health care reform, HIT has become the driver of data system interoperability, improved quality of care, privacy and security of patient health information, promoted the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and increased transparency for both patients and health care providers. HIT is a vital component of comprehensive health care reform and, in light of new legislation such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), its impact will be substantial and long-lasting to all of our clients in the health care arena.
Our team has provided bipartisan legislative, regulatory and policy expertise, as well as transactional advice, to our clients on a wide range of health, technology and privacy matters for years. Since the enactment of ARRA, we have harnessed this experience into a HIT Task Force specifically designed to assist clients:
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develop and implement legislative, administrative and policy strategies, including the passage of laws and the issuance of regulatory rules and policies, that would maximize their benefit from business opportunities being created within the HIT space;
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advocate policy solutions (by members of the Task Force who are registered lobbyists) with members of Congress and administration officials and their respective staffs;
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build and manage industry coalitions and conduct grassroots and grasstops outreach;
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monitor and analyze legislative, regulatory and other policy developments through our “HIT List,” which provides real-time updates on current events relating to HIT;
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identify policy trends and issues that may impact their businesses;
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draft amendments to bills for congressional markup, comments on proposed Federal agency regulations, letters to members of Congress and Administration officials, and analyses and talking points for advocacy efforts; and
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negotiate health care information technology transactions for both health care providers and vendors covering a diverse range of solutions for both clinical and financial operations, including client-server software, hosted and web-based applications and information exchanges.
Our Team
The HIT Task Force includes attorneys and policy advisors who specialize in key practice areas relevant to HIT, including:
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a legislative and public policy team consisting of senior officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Executive Offices of President Clinton and George W. Bush, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and several other experts with years of experience in legislative and public policy initiatives relating to health care and information technology;
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our health care regulatory practice, including attorneys who represent various segments of the health care industry, such as physician and non-physician practitioners, hospitals, post-acute care facilities, health plans, clinical laboratories, dialysis facilities, medical device manufacturers and health care associations, and who also specialize in Medicare and Medicaid coverage and reimbursement and other third-party payer systems, fraud and abuse matters, and HIPAA and ARRA privacy and security requirements;
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our intellectual property and technology transactions attorneys, who specialize in advice, counseling and hands-on negotiations with respect to information technology transactions and provide expertise in the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in emerging medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields; and
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a privacy and data security team including attorneys who collectively have decades of experience advising clients on complex privacy and security issues in the health care and information technology areas, and attorneys and policy professionals who focus on representing businesses and coalitions before Congress and executive branch departments and agencies on issues affecting e‑commerce, data privacy, data security, telecommunications and intellectual property.
Our Clients
Our clients include both traditional health care clients, such as hospitals, health care practitioners and health plans, as well as clients outside of the health care space, such as financial institutions, manufacturers and vendors of software and EHRs. To better serve our clients, we launched the “HIT List,” which provides real-time updates on the constantly changing HIT environment. Our HIT List focuses on current events relating to HIT to ensure that our clients stay abreast of the most recent legislative and regulatory developments.
For more information on upcoming HIT events, click here.
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