In Episode 128 of DC EKG, Joe Grogan is joined by Kat McDavitt and Lisa Bari, co-hosts of the Health Tech Talk Show, for a practical conversation on what the next wave of health IT policy could unlock for patients and innovation.

They break down the proposed HTI 5 rule from ONC, why it is framed as deregulation, and how it aims to shift the market away from long EHR certification checklists toward one core goal: data that moves. The conversation digs into information blocking, TEFCA, patient access, and the reality of who controls health data in practice.

Joe presses a simple question: if it is “my data,” why do patients still struggle to pull a complete record? Kat and Lisa explain how HIPAA is often used as a barrier instead of a bridge, how secondary data use markets operate, and why privacy gets complicated in a world of apps, brokers, and advanced compute.

They also explore how HTI 5 connects to the AI wave, why state AI laws can create risk for innovation, and whether ideas like a Medicare app library help patients or end up picking winners too late.

In This Conversation

,Timestamps0:36 Intro1:14 Welcome Kat McDavitt and Lisa Bari2:05 Lisa on her new role and what she is working on4:17 First reactions to HTI 5 and EHR deregulation7:34 HTI 5 in plain English11:27 Who controls health data and why this rule matters14:08 Why patients still cannot easily access complete records17:36 HIPAA and how it is used today22:24 Privacy outside HIPAA and secondary use25:50 How HTI 5 targets information blocking28:16 Screen scraping and why it is controversial36:09 How HTI 5 connects to healthcare AI47:28 Medicare app library concerns52:05 Closing and where to find Health Tech Talk Show

Health Tech Talk Show YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HealthTechTalkShow/streams

SEO Keywords (Megaphone)HTI 5, ONC, information blocking, TEFCA, interoperability, healthcare APIs, HIPAA, health data access, healthcare AI policy, data liquidity, screen scraping, Medicare app library

About Our GuestsKat McDavitt is co-host of the Health Tech Talk Show, President and Founding Partner of Innsena, and CEO and Founder of the Zorya Foundation.Lisa Bari is the Vice President of Policy and Partnerships at Innovaccer, where she leads health and AI policy, government relations, and global partnerships. She is the creator and host of the Policy Stack podcast, co-host of the Health Tech Talk Show, and a board member of the Zorya Foundation. Previously, she was the founding CEO of Civitas Networks for Health.Podcast: DC EKG with Joe GroganEpisode: 128Guests: Kat McDavitt and Lisa BariSponsor: Survivors for Solutions – https://survivorsforsolutions.orgExecutive Producer: John “CZ” Czwartacki, DC EKG PodcastProducer: Julie Riga, Stay on Course Studios – https://www.stayoncourse.studio