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.
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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.
By Tony Cotterill – We love our acronyms in healthcare, don’t we? Even departments within the hospital often have their own names. Consider the differences between acronyms used in the billing department and those used by clinicians. But even clinicians in different specialties may not “speak” the same acronym language.
By Alfred Hamilton, PhD, Angela Rivera & Gary Mann – Change is an inevitability for healthcare organizations. Increasingly complex environments call for organizations to undergo digital transformations as they become more reliant on software and technology. Improving operational efficiency, driving business growth, and meeting quality standards…
By Karen De Salvo MD & Andy Slavitt – Every day across America, health information technology professionals and development teams are creating interoperability solutions using APIs. As this surge of innovation grows with each passing year, the likelihood that teams across the nation are creating similar or duplicative health IT applications is also increasing.