The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an interim final rule with comment period where the agency will adopt standards for the HealthCare Electronic Funds Transfers and Remittance Advice transaction under HIPAA to mitigate administrative costs for providers.
Although a proposed policy that would provide patients with the right to request and receive their test results directly from laboratories could empower them and reduce physicians’ workloads, it’s unclear what the specific effects of such a policy would be, according to Hardeep Singh, MD, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, in a recently published Journal of the American Medical Association commentary.
To establish greater public trust in health IT and health information exchanges (HIEs) and facilitate adoption of these technologies, a comprehensive privacy and security framework must be in place, Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), stated before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.
This month, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will commence performing HIPAA audits for a new pilot that will use the audit program to assess HIPAA compliance efforts by a range of covered entities.
Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) research on the transition to the new HIPAA Version 5010 electronic transaction standards indicated a need for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to immediately issue a comprehensive contingency plan permitting health plans to adjudicate claims that may not have all the required data content.
LAS VEGAS—If EHRs are going to be optimized to increase efficiency and the bottom line, administrators should consider more inclusivity in the implementation process, staff and physician workflows, training time and a phased-in implementation, according to an Oct. 24 presentation at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) 2011 annual conference.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released an ICD-10 transition guide. ICD-10 requirements go into effect Oct. 1, 2013.
The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) has sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) outlining their recommendations on the interim final rule (IFR), ”HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Adoption of Operating Rules for Eligibility for a Health Plan and Healthcare Claim Status Transactions.”
Attendees will review the results of a survey on the best practices in compliance in areas such as Medicare and HIPAA.
The University of California at Los Angeles Health System (UCLAHS) has agreed to settle potential violations of HIPAA privacy and security rules for $865,500 following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR). UCLAHS must also implement a corrective action plan aimed at remedying gaps in its compliance with the rules.
An interim final rule for electronic transactions, published in the
Federal Register July 8, would standardize electronic data interchange in an effort to streamline financial and administrative transactions, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
ID Experts has developed a free toolkit and checklist that can help healthcare organizations prepare for and respond to an Office for Civil Rights (OCR) data breach investigation.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Just as PACS liberated studies from their confinement to hard film, so CDs and cloud computing are enabling image sharing across institutions, communities and beyond. But as the cloud buzz grows louder, a group of presenters at the 2011 meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) argued on Thursday that the technology may be green—and ultimately inferior to Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative.
The explosion of social media has made social networking a popular and often beneficial platform for communication and marketing by patients and physicians; but healthcare providers may expose themselves to serious legal risks by engaging in social networking, the extent of which are not yet known, according to a communication in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
Written by Jeff Byers
WARWICK, R.I.—“The [EHR] systems you’re looking at all do pretty much all the same things, so lessons learned [from our end] is to pick your vendor carefully and spend time getting to know them,” said Stephen DeRosa, MA, vice president of information systems and quality management, corporate compliance officer and HIPAA security officer at Gateway Healthcare, in Pawtucket, R.I.
Written by Clint vanSonnenberg
Allegations of inappropriate imaging and Medicare fraud are flying between a University of Iowa radiologist and university officials, who claim that Malik E. Juweid, MD, violated HIPAA by sending protected health information to Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), among other unauthorized officials.
Although the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) supports the ongoing development of EHR capabilities and acknowledges their importance in broader changes to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) strategy, the ONC should be careful not to expect EHRs to do too much, too fast, cautioned Richard Correll, president and CEO of CHIME, responding to the ONC's request for comments on the proposed Federal Health IT Strategic Plan.
The American Medical Association (AMA) voiced concerns over “burdensome federal regulations” in a letter sent last week to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Small practices--those with fewer than 10 physicians--have some familiar concerns when it comes to the conversion to HIPAA Version 5010, which must be completed by Jan. 1, 2012. Those concerns are resources, time and money, according to Jackie Griffin, manager of the revenue cycle management company Gateway EDI in St. Louis, Mo.
Written by Mary Stevens
CHICAGO—It takes collaboration and ease of use—but not monolithic systems—to implement effective mobile health, according to Andrew Barbash, MD, medical director of neuroscience and virtual care services at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md.
