By Mona Siddiqui – As a third year medical student, these were the words I heard from the surgical fellow running my team. His message was clear: you have a role and you have your tasks-don’t rock the boat.
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By Amelia Barros, Alison Lerner & Jennifer Zheng – Recent regulatory shifts in the healthcare industry will jeopardize healthcare providers that do not substantially reduce costs. In response to these mounting pressures, many hospitals are turning to technology as a solution.
One of the ways that HITECH Answers is different from other media sites is the sense of community. The thought leaders in our community are good about sharing their thoughts on the issues of today. Here are the top read and shared guest posts of June.
By Jonathan Krasner – Back in March, we reported that OCR had announced its Phase 2 Audit Program. OCR stated that they would compile a database of both Covered Entities and Business Associates to form the basis of the pool of organizations potentially targeted for audit. They have followed up on their intentions and in the last week organizations have started to receive contact emails from OCR.
The job will not be complete until all health records are digital and interoperable. Here’s what’s happening to make that reality:
By Matt Fisher – Potentially lost in the week leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend, the OCR announced its latest HIPAA related breach settlement. The settlement is one of the first directed at a business associate and serves as a pointed reminder that business associates may be directly liable for the breaches that they may cause.
By D’Arcy Guerin Gue – Let’s face it, for providers, the Meaningful Use (MU) stage 2 requirements related to patient portals are not exactly onerous. With minor variations, providers are required to make health information available to half their patients within four days of a visit.
By Susam Vang – If implementing an electronic health record (EHR) is not already challenging for most healthcare organizations, an EHR system design and implementation’s success or failure is greatly dependent on its stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs).
By Julie Rovner – Medical students cram a lot of basic science and medicine into their first two years of training. But most learn next to nothing about the intricacies of the health care system they are soon to enter. That’s something the medical school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is trying to remedy.