Regulation of HIT by federal independent agency vs. federal executive agency / Open criminal probe of GM recall

In the FY2014 HHS budget-in-brief document (PDF at http://www.hhs.gov/budget/fy2014/fy-2014-budget-in-brief.pdf) on page 115, there's this:Patient Safety and Health IT UsabilityPatient safety and usability continue to be a focus forONC. Working with federal partners AHRQ and FDA,ONC will create the foundation for a patientsafety program that will be launched in FY 2014called “The Patient Safety Plan”. The Plan seeksto ensure that health IT is safely designed andimplemented, medical staff are properlyinformed and trained to use their health ITsystems, and a surveillance system is establishedto monitor health IT related patient safety eventsand ensure that unsafe conditions are corrected.I believe the health IT industry now realizes some form of regulation is inevitable after, for example, revelations from medical malpractice insurers that a significant number of lawsuits involve the effects of health IT (see for instance my post "Malpractice Claims Analysis Confirms Risks in EHRs" at http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2014/02/patient-safety-quality-healthcare.html).I also believe that industry and its pundits have pushed for the most favorable regulation possible.  This involves pushing for regulation by agencies with the least agency independence as possible, as I bring out below.  HHS along with its member branches FDA, AHRQ and ONC are executive departments of the US government  The legislation that governs the way such departments and agencies may propose and...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 AHRQ FDA federal executive department federal independent agency healthcare IT regulation HHS ONC Source Type: blogs