Why Behavioral Health Can’t Wait for AI and Telehealth Policy Clarity | Healthcare IT Today The following is a guest article by Andy Flanagan, CEO at Iris Telehealth Behavioral health providers are expanding access to care while navigating three regulatory uncertainties: When will DEA prescribing rules become permanent instead of getting last-minute extensions? Will telehealth reimbursement parity return after enforcement stopped? And who's legally responsible when AI flags a patient

Why Behavioral Health Can't Wait for AI and Telehealth Policy Clarity #HITsm
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/?p=2533852

"Are you the Fall 2025 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda?
Because I'd wait forever for you."

#HealthPolicyValentines

Crafting a Tenacious D reference into my LinkedIn post should NOT be this challenging.

I must owe more than my company is worth…

If an email I send to outside counsel is poorly worded do we get charged extra? Do they just take the cost out of my paycheck? How does this work it's my first day.

me: I don't really get the deal with Geese

me after hearing "taxes" for the first time: Cameron Winter has been touched by the Hand of God

Please DM me all criticisms privately. I am a fragile Victorian child living in a health policy professional's body.

TYSM.

Policy recommendations from the blog: require PETs like tokenization in high risk data sharing, move toward a unified federal de identification standard grounded in expert determination, and build PET expectations into grants, contracts, and procurement to make privacy operational.

We describe #tokenization as one practical PET. Direct identifiers stay behind the firewall and are converted to irreversible tokens, with site specific keys and bilateral approval for cross organization linkage. That enables record linkage for care and research *without* exposing identifiers / PII.

In the piece, we also focus on surveillance risk. Aggregated health data can be repurposed in ways that feel deeply intrusive, including underwriting, employment/hiring, or even legal proceedings. Privacy by design has to be engineered into technical infrastructure, not left to notice and consent.

One core issue we highlight is the HIPAA gap. HIPAA protects data held by covered entities and business associates. Once data moves to third party apps, devices, or other non-HIPAA regulated entities, it often falls under weaker or fragmented rules, even for highly sensitive information.

Securing America’s Health Data with Privacy-Enhancing Technology | Datavant As digital health outpaces regulation, tokenization offers a scalable path to privacy and trust, enabling advancements that support regulatory, patient, and consumer priorities.

Digital health is outpacing the regulatory guardrails designed to protect it, and patients are feeling that gap. In a new blog post with Kevin Keogh at #Datavant, we argue PETs like tokenization should be baseline for privacy preserving data use: www.datavant.com/real-world-d...

*jeopardy interview segment* so Sam, it says here you "steal niche meme templates and emerging pop culture references and adjust them for a health data policy audience" me, beaming: that... *jeopardy interview segment* so Sam, it says here you "steal niche meme templates and emerging pop culture references and adjust them for a health data policy audience" me, beaming: that's right k...

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What I'm grateful for on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

*jeopardy interview segment*

so Sam, it says here you "steal niche meme templates and emerging pop culture references and adjust them for a health data policy audience"

me, beaming: that's right ken.

If I DM you this it means I’m about to completely derail any semblance of structure and purpose of the current zoom meeting

I hate health policy Halloween what do you mean you're going as the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement before they changed the QHIN graphic color to forest green

#HealthPolicyHalloween

[📷 2022]

Moving Towards Computable Consent: Findings and Next Steps YouTube video by Sequoia Project

IMHO, the webinar offers one of the most comprehensive overviews--including challenges & opportunities from policy, operational, AND technical perspectives--of the health data privacy and consent landscape.

You can watch the recording at the the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJd_...

On Monday I joined interoperability and privacy experts in a discussion and presentation of the recent Sequoia Project white paper on #privacy and #consent.

This webinar recap is part of a weeklong series for #HealthDataWeek where we’re highlighting the power of health data to drive better care and outcomes for patients.

👇 Check out the key takeaways from the conversation I co-led with Kyle Probst on the evolving state policy landscape and what it means for the use of health data.

www.datavant.com/hipaa-privac...

Y'all! It's National #HealthDataWeek: a time to spotlight the issues and innovations shaping the future of health data.

I’m proud to be part of a team that’s leaning into some of the most important and complex questions in health data policy today, from privacy to interoperability to AI.

Headlines: Datavant acquires Aetion - Akido Labs raises $60M - VA hopes to go live at 20 sites in 2027 - Sprinter Health raises $55M histalk2.com/2025/05/15/m...

10/ 📅 Register here: webinar.datavant.com/datavant/sta...

#HealthPrivacy #HealthAI #HealthcareCompliance #HealthIT #DataPrivacy #AIinHealthcare #RegulatoryCompliance #HealthPolicy

9/ For all of my tired and overused self-deprecation, it’s a serious topic that deserves serious attention. I hope you can join us.
#HealthPolicy #DataPrivacy

8/ 🧭 Practical strategies for tracking and responding to a rapidly evolving landscape
#RegulatoryCompliance #HealthPrivacy

7/ 📣 Best practices for communicating state-level changes to staff, leadership, and customers
#HealthcareCompliance #HealthIT

6/ 🏛️ Topics to monitor across states: AI, sensitive data segmentation, record retrieval pricing, and consumer privacy
#HealthPolicy #AIinHealthcare

5/ ❓ Common areas of uncertainty—like how states define “health data” and treat de-identified data
#HealthIT #DataPrivacy

4/ 🔐 How emerging privacy laws impact health data both within and beyond HIPAA
#HealthPrivacy #RegulatoryCompliance

3/ 📜 Key state legislative trends, including consumer privacy laws and efforts to regulate AI in healthcare
#HealthAI #AIinHealthcare