Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7898, a technical corrections bill introduced by Dr. Burgess. The 21st Century Cures Act had a major provision, led by Dr. Burgess, regarding information blocking. This is a process where a healthcare provider or an electronic healthcare record vendor will not move a patient's data between care settings or erects significant technological or financial barriers to do so. The 21st Century Cures Act was significant in that it banned the practice of information blocking, which is a key patient protection and an effort to transform our healthcare delivery system. Patient access and control over personal health information should be at the center of our efforts in securing high-quality and patient-driven care. The Energy and Commerce Committee delivered this win for patients, and today, we need to make a minor but very important technical correction to ensure our policy is enforced. H.R. 7898 would clarify the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general regarding information blocking, to make crystal clear that the IG has the authority to enforce this ban, to go after bad actors, and to protect patient access to personal health data. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), the author of this provision and our ranking member, the top member on the Republican side, on the Health Subcommittee.”