Is AI Policy a Bigger Undertaking Than Meaningful Use? Kristen McGovern Thinks So

Earning a Presidential Management Fellowship after law school
gave Kristen McGovern firsthand experience working inside many of
the agencies and offices that drive U.S. healthcare policy. Over
a two year period with the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) she worked at organizations including the National
Cancer Institute and the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority (BARDA). She eventually landed at the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) just as the HITECH Act was
signed into law in 2009, dedicating nearly $30 billion to
modernizing healthcare IT.

As the executive office that oversees the federal budget and
federal agencies, Kristen worked closely with leadership at OMB
and HHS as they deployed funding for Meaningful Use and other
programs catalyzed by the landmark legislation.

In 2010, around the same time the Affordable Care Act was passed
into law, Kristen was recruited by Farzad Mostashari (a previous
guest on the Healthcare is Hard podcast) and became chief of
staff at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT
(ONC).

These experiences launched a career that has put Kristen at the
forefront of federal healthcare policy and politics. She is
currently partner at Sirona Strategies, a healthcare consulting
firm she co-founded to advise organizations – from startups to
the Fortune 500 – on healthcare policy.

Some of the topics Kristen talked to Keith Figlioli about on this
episode of the Healthcare is Hard podcast include:



A pulse check on DC. Kristen shared insight into the
offices and agencies shaping the healthcare industry from
inside the beltway. For example, she talked about the current
state of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation
(CMMI), the activity she says is happening “below the surface”
and how the organization is at an inflection point after more
than a decade testing payment and delivery system models.


The evolution of Meaningful Use. Looking back at her
time at ONC, Kristen talks about the initial goals of
encouraging EHR adoption to unlock insight from paper records
that were sitting in filing cabinets. She talks about progress
the industry has made and the current goals of making sure
organizations can access and use data in new and innovative
ways. In other words, ensuring we haven’t just created
electronic filing cabinets.


The size and scope of AI Policy. With all the enthusiasm
about artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, Kristen talks
about the process of putting guardrails around this powerful
technology. She says it will require a large-scale
collaborative effort across HHS and other government agencies,
and believes it will ultimately be an even bigger undertaking
than Meaningful Use.


Policy advice for startups. As a highly regulated
industry, every organization that touches healthcare needs to
be aware of the impact current and future policy decisions
could have on their business. Kristen shared advice about how
she helps startups think through the impact of policy
decisions, and when and how to embed policy experts in a
business.



To hear Keith and Kristen talk about these topics and more,
listen to this episode of Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for
Insiders.