HITECH Omnibus Rule Out by End of Summer HealthDataManagement reports that the HITECH “Omnibus Rule” is due to be released by the end of the summer, according to Farzad Mostashari, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Office of the National Coordinator...
Mass. AG Levies 750k Judgment on Hospital for Data Breach Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced on May 24, 2012 having reached a settlement agreement with South Shore Hospital for failure to protect personal and confidential health information of over 800,000...
Will HIPAA Conviction Appeal Loss Open the “Zhou” Gates? This post is prepared by Christopher Dodson. Readers of this blog are probably familiar with the case of Dr. Huping Zhou, who was successfully prosecuted for violating HIPAA’s privacy protections. Zhou accessed the patient records of...
Are We Ready for the Nationwide Health Information Network? ONC Releases RFI for Governance of NwHIN Currently, more than 500 hospitals and over 4,000 practices and clinics participate in the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). According to the Federal Health Architecture...
Legal and Practical Implications of Meaningful Use Attestation With over $4 billion paid out to eligible professionals (EPs) and hospitals under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs as of March 2012 according to CMS, many hospitals are gearing up for or have recently...
We “Like” Organ Donor Status on Facebook This post has been prepared by Christina Strong, Esq. The addition of “organ donor status” to Facebook is a tremendous boon for the communication of what is fast becoming a social norm, altruistic donation of one’s body, to take place after death. Unlike...
Public Comments for Meaningful Use Stage 2 NPRM Due May 7 The clock is ticking for interested parties to submit comments in response to the CMS and ONC Meaningful Use Stage 2 Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The deadline for submission of comments is 5pm on Monday, May 7. CMS...
CMS Updates Meaningful Use FAQs for Multiple Certified EHRs Coming a little too late for hospitals and eligible professionals who have already attested or begun to attest for 2012, CMS has kindly taken a step back on Meaningful Use requirements for accounting for unique patients in...
Yet Another Medicaid Breach; Emory Loses Back-up Discs This April appears to have been designated “National Breach” month. In what is the second massive breach of Medicaid data this month, over 200,000 South Carolina Medicaid beneficiaries have been notified of a breach of their health...
Meaningful Use EP Eligibility Appeals Extended to April 30, 2012 As a reminder to eligible professionals (EPs) participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, CMS has extended the deadline within which an EP may file an eligibility appeal to Monday, April 30, 2012. In general,...
Cardiac Surgery MD Group Agrees to Pay 0,000 Settlement to HHS for Lack of HIPAA safeguards And the HIPAA money keeps rolling to the feds. The latest settlement (announced today) is with a cardiac surgery physician group in Phoenix, Arizona, which has agreed to pay a hefty sum after someone...
Utah Medicaid Claims Data Hacked Affecting Over 24,000 The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) has experienced a data breach of its Medicaid claims data of over 24,000 individuals. The breach was reported to UDOH by the Utah Technology Services Department on Monday, April 2nd, and while...
NeHC Releases Roadmap for Growth and Evolution of HIE, and Legal HIE Listed as a Helpful Resource! Following ONC’s release of its Program Information Notice “Privacy and Security Framework Requirements and Guidance for State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program,”...
Grantees of HIE Funds Get “PIN-ned” on Privacy, Security and Patient Consent On March 22, 2012 HHS/ONC released a new Program Information Notice (PIN) called the “Privacy and Security Framework Requirements and Guidance for State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program” (P&S...
As many of our readers have already heard, on March 13, 2012 HHS announced that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee entered into a Resolution Agreement for $1.5 Million Dollars to settle potential violations of HIPAA. You can access a copy of the Resolution Agreement here. I find this new case...