Terms and Conditions May Apply: Consequences of Email-Provider Email Scanning This guest blog post was written by Van Zimmerman, Esq. Van is currently the Privacy and Security Officer at Jersey Health Connect, a New Jersey health information exchange network. Van has over 18 years experience in...
CMS Releases Guidance on Stage 2 Summary of Care Measure CMS release guidance yesterday that it has discontinued the NIST EHR-Randomizer effective today, July 1. Hospitals and providers were previously required to conduct a test with the NIST EHR-Randomizer as part of their demonstration of the...
8 Things to Know about the Next Evolution of Meaningful Use CMS recently released proposed changes to Stage 2 Meaningful Use as well as a proposed rule for Stage 3 which has been scheduled to begin for all participants in 2018. The comment period for the Stage 3 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking...
CMS Extends Hospital Deadline for Meaningful Use Attestation Hospitals can breathe a little easier this Thanksgiving. CMS announced on Monday that it was extending the attestation deadline for hospitals attesting to Meaningful Use in 2014. Hospitals now have until December 31, 2014 to...
CMS Releases Final Meaningful Use CEHRT Extension Rule Happy Labor Day and Back-to-School Week! September is here, which means hospitals and EPs participating in Meaningful Use are rapidly approaching deadlines for their respective 2014 reporting periods. Hospitals are in the closing stretch and...
Reminder: Public Comment Period Open for Meaningful Use NPRM Last month, CMS and ONC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) which would grant flexibility to providers participating in Meaningful Use who are having trouble implementing 2014 Editions of their CEHRT. The public comment...
CMS Announces Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for 2014 Certified EHR Technology Flexibility CMS and ONC announced yesterday a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would grant flexibility to hospitals and providers participating in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs...
Copiers result in .2 million settlement and CAP for Affinity Health Yet another covered entity has been hit with over $1 million to settle potential violations of HIPAA, this time for improper disposal of photocopiers. Last week, OCR announced a settlement had been reached with...
Document Disposal Company Responsible for old Patient Records found in Park Over 277,000 patients were notified by Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth (“Texas Health Fort Worth”) earlier this month of a breach of their health information. Only patients seen between...
WellPoint hit with .7 million for Security Weaknesses in Online Application The increasingly heavy-handed OCR announced news yesterday of yet another resolution agreement for HIPAA violations; this time hitting WellPoint Inc., a managed care company, with $1.7 million for an...
ONC Sells Successes of Health IT Adoption to Congress in Annual Report The ONC released its second annual report on the adoption of health IT this past June. The report provides a snapshot of the nation’s efforts and continuing barriers to health IT adoption. Although EHRs have...
Lessons from the Idaho State University CAP Back in 2011, Idaho State University (Idaho State) experienced a breach of PHI affecting approximately 17,500 individuals after firewalls on its servers were disabled at one of its outpatient clinics. It appropriately notified HHS in August of...
ONC Releases Governance Framework for Trusted HIE After backtracking on developing “Rules of the Road” for trusted electronic health information exchange (HIE) last year, ONC has released its promised Governance Framework for HIE after months of collaboration with stakeholders. Crafted...
EHR Vendor Loses Meaningful Use Certification HHS announced on Thursday that two EHRs have had their Meaningful Use certification revoked. EHRMagic-Ambulatory and EHRMagic-Inpatient, which are developed by EHRMagic, Inc., were previously certified for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR...
Proposed Rules Extend EHR Donation Sunsets for Stark and Anti-Kickback Earlier this month, CMS and OIG proposed amendments to and extension of the temporary Stark exception and Anti-kickback safe harbor for electronic health record (EHR) donations to physicians. The Proposed EHR Rules...