HIMSS has issued the following statement regarding the passage of the 2016 Omnibus spending package:
HIMSS applauds the House and Senate for passing critical cybersecurity information sharing legislation as part of the FY2016 omnibus spending package.
HIMSS strongly supports the healthcare-specific provisions in the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 that will move the entire sector forward in addressing the many challenges of an increasingly complex health IT cybersecurity landscape.
HIMSS has consistently called for the need to ensure a single pipeline of actionable, real-time cyber threat data to healthcare leaders and facilitate consistent implementation of a common set of security and risk management standards and best practices across the sector.
HIMSS thanks HELP Committee Chairman Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Murray (D-WA) for their leadership in authoring the provisions that will finally bring this much needed support to healthcare organizations as they work to protect patients and their data from growing cyber threats.
We look forward to partnering with HHS to implement these important policies and ensure the resulting tools and resources can be accessed and utilized by all healthcare organizations.
