HHS promises transparency, but only after getting caught

A lot has been made about President Obama's repeated promises to run the most transparent administration this country has ever seen. Obviously, the administration still has a lot of work to do.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology last week announced that it would be making public the deliberations of the various workgroups of the Health IT Policy Committee and the Health IT Standards Committee. In a press release, ONC said it would webcast all workgroup meetings at http://healthit.hhs.gov. "In addition, audio files [.mp3] of [HIT Policy Committee and HIT Standards Committee] meetings and the workgroup meetings will be available on the ONC website within 24 to 48 hours following the conclusion of each meeting. A draft transcript of the meetings will be available within 5 to 8 business days," ONC says.

Meanwhile, CMS announced that it would make public the comments it receives about the proposed rules for "meaningful use" of health IT. (CMIO has a nice summary of comments through last Wednesday.)

Great stuff, right? Open government is good. The problem is, this sudden transparency seems to be a direct response to the Policy Committee's workgroup on privacy and security being caught by another publication holding a closed-door meeting Dec. 8, the very same day the White House issued a directive on open government. For weeks, the administration stonewalled the reporter in his attempts to find out why the meetings were closed.

A follow-up story about federal officials standing firm ran on Dec. 23. That happened to be the same day ONC chief Dr. David Blumenthal, who oversees the committees in question, wrote on his blog about a "commitment to transparency." Ah, the irony.

Let's hope last week's announcements really mean the process of awarding some $20 billion in federal subsidies for health IT really will be transparent and not just empty political rhetoric. Let's also hope that HHS isn't hiding anything else from us. And let's celebrate the power of the press to keep politicians honest. - Neil

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