The American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM) has requested clarification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on a 2015 law that, it argues, unnecessarily restricts payers and providers from collaborating effectively on mobile health initiatives.

The AAHAM and its co-petitioners Anthem, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and WellCare Health Plans believe that language in the FCC’s 2015 Omnibus TCPA Order (referring to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act) exposes payers to liability, should they communicate with their beneficiaries via text message.

The order allows entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to communicate with patients that give their phone number to a healthcare provider, reported Fierce Healthcare‘s IT editor Evan Sweeney.

The petitioning insurers believe the FCC should clarify it to specifically state that a HIPAA-covered entity can communicate by phone with patients who have provided their phone numbers to any HIPAA-covered entity.

The current language, they argue, could be read in a way that would require a patient to give his or her phone number to each HIPAA-covered entity from whom he or she wishes to receive text message reminders.

Get the full story here, from Fierce Healthcare.