Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
OPM Plan to Collect Federal Employee Health Insurance Data Draws Privacy and Security Objections
The Office of Personnel Management has proposed requiring federal employee health insurers to hand over identifiable medical claims data — including clinical notes, diagnoses, treatment plans and prescription records — for more than 10 million federal and postal service employees, retirees and their dependents. Democrats in the House pushed back, warning the plan creates serious privacy and security risks, particularly because the proposal would not require insurers to anonymize data before transmission. CVS Health, one of only six public commenters, also questioned OPM’s legal authority to collect and warehouse beneficiary-level claims data. Cybersecurity advocates say consolidation of sensitive health data in a federal repository significantly expands the attack surface.
Sources: GovInfoSecurity
CMS Selects 150 Organizations to Launch Tech-Enabled ACCESS Chronic Care Model in July
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has selected more than 150 digital health companies and healthcare providers to launch its Advancing Chronic Care with Effective Scalable Solutions model, a 10-year program beginning July 2026. Participating organizations will receive recurring monthly payments for using approved digital technologies to manage conditions including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic kidney disease, depression and anxiety among Original Medicare patients. Payment is tied to measurable health outcomes — for example, achieving a meaningful reduction in blood pressure. Most of the 150 participants had no prior Medicare experience. The model is designed to accelerate adoption of technology-supported care and integrated EHR analytics workflows.
Sources: Healthcare Dive, Healthcare IT News
HSCC Releases AI Vendor Risk Guidance to Help Health Sector Manage Third-Party Cyber Threats
The Health Sector Coordinating Council has published new guidance to help healthcare organizations manage the growing cybersecurity risks posed by AI vendors. The document covers the full AI supply chain from procurement through end-of-life decommissioning, providing recommended contract terms, business associate agreement tips and a governance training curriculum. Compliance teams, legal staff and AI leadership teams each receive tailored guidance. The framework draws on NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework and HHS’s voluntary Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices. HSCC also released a companion AI cyber glossary. The guide arrives as third-party AI adoption accelerates, expanding the attack surface faster than most health systems’ existing vendor risk programs can adapt.
Sources: GovInfoSecurity
Epic Health Systems Connect to Social Security Administration Through TEFCA for Faster Disability Decisions
Some Epic-based health systems can now instantly share patient medical records with the Social Security Administration through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, accelerating disability benefit determinations for applicants. The integration allows SSA to electronically retrieve clinical documentation needed to evaluate disability claims, reducing a process that previously required weeks of paper requests. TEFCA, established under the 21st Century Cures Act, enables QHIN-connected organizations to exchange health information across networks. Epic says the SSA connection closes a long-standing gap where disability applicants often waited months for records transfers, delaying critical income support decisions for vulnerable patients who rely on government benefits.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Athenahealth Rolls Out AI-Native EHR with Free Ambient Documentation for All 100,000 Provider Users
Athenahealth is rolling out a redesigned, AI-native version of its EHR platform aimed at reducing clinician documentation burden and improving revenue cycle performance. New capabilities include AI-enhanced document services, intelligent clinical summaries prepared before patient visits, ambient listening during encounters and automatic draft note generation. AthenaAmbient, the company’s ambient documentation solution, will be made available at no additional cost to all users — a significant move given the high licensing fees most ambient AI tools carry. Athenahealth is also offering Microsoft Dragon Copilot as an alternative ambient documentation option in the first half of 2026. The company targets a 99.4% clean claim rate through AI-driven revenue cycle improvements.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
AI Scribes Cut EHR Documentation Time Most Sharply When Clinicians Use Them for More Than Half of Visits
A study published in April 2026 finds that clinicians using AI scribes for more than 50% of patient visits experienced twice the reduction in total EHR time and three times the reduction in documentation time compared with infrequent users. The research adds to growing evidence that ambient AI documentation tools deliver measurable efficiency gains when adopted broadly rather than selectively. Despite the enthusiasm, insurers and providers broadly agree that AI scribes are contributing to rising healthcare costs — a tension the industry has not resolved. CMS and payers are increasingly scrutinizing billing patterns linked to AI-generated clinical notes, signaling that regulatory attention is coming.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
HHS Proposes to Eliminate 34 Health IT Certification Requirements in Reset Aimed at Promoting AI and FHIR
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has proposed eliminating 34 of 60 existing certification requirements for health IT and revising seven more — altering nearly 70% of the current certification framework. The proposed rule, HTI-5, aims to deregulate health IT development, promote AI through FHIR APIs and remove requirements ONC calls burdensome. ONC says the move would establish a new foundation for FHIR API requirements supporting AI-enabled interoperability solutions. Critics warn the rollback could weaken standardization gains. The proposal follows HHS’s March reinstatement of ONC as a standalone office, ending its brief combined title with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare, Healthcare IT News
Defense Health Agency Seeks Up to $300 Million in Contracts for Military Health IT Deployment Support
The Defense Health Agency is seeking commercial contractors for up to $300 million in health IT deployment support services for the Military Health System. The contract covers site preparation, technical integrations, training, user adoption, change management and post-installation support across military medical facilities. The one-year base contract includes options for additional renewal years. The DHA solicitation reflects a broader federal push to modernize military healthcare IT and ensure interoperability across dozens of treatment facilities nationwide. This effort aligns with the Pentagon’s ongoing work to stabilize its Oracle Cerner-based MHS Genesis electronic health record system, which has faced deployment challenges at several sites.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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