By Mike Semel – The Office for Civil Rights announced that the new permanent audit program has started. On July 11 letters were sent BY E-MAIL (check your junk mail folders!) to 167 health plans, health care providers, and health care clearing houses (all HIPAA Covered Entities) notifying them that they have to send in documentation for a ‘desk audit.’ They will have 10 days to send in the required materials for review.
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By Jeremy Guttman – Entirely paper-based healthcare is going the way of the dodo bird. Since 2008, the number of office-based physicians who have adopted electronic healthcare records (EHRs) has doubled from 40% to over 80%. In fact, the number of physicians using EHRs has actually quadrupled in the past 12 years.
By Kim Straub – Here’s what you need to know and how you can adjust to the new payment policies. The Two-Midnight Rule – The changes to this rule came into effect in January this year. The Two Midnight Rule, founded in 2013, helps define inpatient versus out-patient stays, but does so in a way that can make patient intake awkward.
By Matt Patterson MD – I had the privilege to present at the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Hearing. Leaders in the healthcare industry discussed how mobile applications are disrupting the ways in which doctors and patients engage in the health care system and impact the affordability, accessibility, and delivery of care.
By Matt Fisher – After promising to provide guidance and insight for a breaking issue, the OCR came out with ransomware guidance under HIPAA. One major issue for debate was whether a ransomware attack constitutes a HIPAA breach. The guidance provides insight into where OCR is coming from and what it expects the industry to do in response to a ransomware attack.
By Keith Boone – One of the challenges of meaningful use is in how it has diverted attention from other uses of standards that could have value. Use of the Unstructured Document template provides one such example.
By Dr. Vindell Washington – Hospitals across the country continue to make progress toward the goal of ensuring that health information flows where it is needed the most. Today, almost all U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals have certified EHR technology and 82% are electronically exchanging health data outside their organization – double the percentage from 2008.
By Matt Fisher – With healthcare gradually (or rapidly) moving from a fee for service (FFS) world to a value-based care world, questions about the laws and regulations governing relationships within healthcare are increasing. The predominant current regulatory framework, exemplified by the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statutes.
By John Halamka – “Do we need more or less healthcare IT regulation and legislation” is that we need the right amount of the right regulations/legislation. Sometimes when clinicians prescribe medication, although it does therapeutic good, it creates side effects which need to be addressed by changing a dose or by adding additional medications.