HX Feeds

Lowering the Red Flags

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:41:00 -0800

The Red Flags Rule hit two more hurdles recently. On Oct. 29, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment to the American Bar Association (ABA) to set aside an extended enforcement policy of the controversial Red...(read more)

Privacy and Social Networking

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:39:00 -0700

In Beye v. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey , a court addressed an issue that will likely recur -- the impact on a person's privacy of their voluntary disclosure of sensitive information on a social networking site. In this case the court...(read more)

Two-party Consent Laws

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:59:00 -0700

A group recently secretly videotaped interactions with employees of the poverty-rights organization ACORN, and those tapes have been played widely in the media. The ACORN situation illustrates the issue that two-party consent laws can create, irrespective...(read more)

Credit Card Receipt Laws Present Challenges

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:49:00 -0700

A number of laws restrict the dissemination of credit card numbers on receipts. California's law has provisions that became effective this year that differ from other laws. California prohibits any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation or...(read more)

New Class-action Case Offers New Theories

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:31:00 -0700

Hannaford Bros. Co., a grocer, faced a number of class-action lawsuits from its customers as a result of a third party stealing electronic payment data from credit cards and debit cards used by its customers to purchase groceries. The alleged data breach...(read more)

New Data-security Laws

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:10:00 -0700

Every company and organization must grapple with data security. In the health field, HIPAA has specific data-security requirements, but general data-security restrictions can also be implicated. Over 30 states have data-security or data-destruction laws....(read more)

Red Flags: Keep Holding Your Breath

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:17:00 -0700

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced that it has once again extended the compliance deadline for Red Flags, in part based upon efforts by the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association to clarify the definition of "creditor"...(read more)

Genetic Testing, Part 2

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:25:00 -0700

This is the second post in a series on genetic testing laws. Click here to access the first blog post. Like California, New York has a number of restrictions on the use of genetic testing, including under its Civil Rights law. Unless it can be clearly...(read more)

FTC Brings Case in Conjunction with Office of Civil Rights

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:44:00 -0700

The FTC has clearly indicated its focus on preventing medical identity theft and a case involving CVS shows that focus. Brought earlier this year, CVS was alleged to have failed to implement reasonable and appropriate security to protect the information...(read more)

Restrictions on Genetic Testing in California

Tue, 19 May 2009 15:37:00 -0700

A number of states have enacted restrictions on genetic testing that go beyond the federal genetic privacy law, GINA. California has restricted the disclosure of test results for genetic characteristics in a limited way, as the law only applies to requests...(read more)

The Issue of Standing in Privacy Litigation

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:14:00 -0700

Standing is an issue that is frequently raised in privacy litigation. Standing is a constitutional issue under Article III of the United States Constitution, and the party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing the following three...(read more)

E-mail Case Ruling Allows Punitive Damages and Attorneys’ Fees

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:42:00 -0700

Most privacy litigation faces serious challenge due to the lack of actual damages. (A full discussion of that issue can be found in Section 26:18 of my book.) However, claims that involve statutory penalties, such as the Electronic Communications Privacy...(read more)

HIT Funding Under ARRA

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:01:00 -0800

On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). I will be focusing on the health care aspects of ARRA in my next several blogs.

ARRA provides additional support for the development and adoption of health care information technology (HIT). The largest allocation of HIT funding -- approximately $17 billion -- is for incentive payments through the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement systems to encourage providers and hospitals to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems -- specifically for the "meaningful use of certified EHR technology" by eligible professionals and hospitals.

An eligible professional (professionals eligible for the incentive payments are those who participate in Medicare and who are defined under Sec. 1861[r] of the Social Security Act) will receive incentive payments for the first five years (2011 through 2015) for demonstrating a meaningful use of EHR technology and demonstrated performance during the reporting period for each payment year.

In order to maximize payments under ARRA, eligible professionals must adopt a meaningful use of EHR technology in 2011 or 2012, thereby qualifying for five annual payments ending in 2015 or 2016, respectively (an aggregate maximum payment of $44,000). If an eligible professional does not demonstrate a meaningful use of EHR technology by 2015, he or she will not receive incentive payments and his or her reimbursement payments under Medicare will be reduced as specified in the legislation. Thus, there is strong incentive to move quickly on these matters.

Health Care Providers not Exempt from 'Creditor' Rules

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:22:00 -0800

Under the Red Flag rules, a "creditor" is "any person or business who arranges for the extension, renewal or continuation of credit" with a "covered account." An "account" means a continuing relationship with a creditor to obtain a product or service and includes deferred payments for services or property. A "covered account" is: (1) an account primarily for personal, family or household purposes that involves or is designed to permit multiple payments or transactions; and (2) any other account (including an account for business purposes) for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk to customers, or the safety and soundness of the creditor, from identity theft, including financial, operational, compliance, reputation or litigation risks.

Each financial institution or creditor must periodically determine whether it offers or maintains covered accounts. As a part of this determination, a financial institution or creditor must conduct a risk assessment to determine whether it offers or maintains covered accounts:

The methods it provides to open its accounts;
The methods it provides to access its accounts; and
Its previous experiences with identity theft.

There are a number of other requirements and health care providers are not exempt from these requirements, so an examination of whether the regulations are applicable is important and timely given the pending deadline.

Implementing Interoperability

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:26:00 -0800

Health care record interoperability is one of the least recognized health and privacy issues at this time. While this issue had not received significant support before Hurricane Katrina, that disaster made government realize the value of easily accessible medical records for patients in crisis and that patient care will improve if health care professionals are given more access to portions of medical records. Another reason frequently cited in support of interoperability is the cost savings that states and insurers will receive from increased efficiencies. Ironically, the current focus on interoperability will likely bring HIPAA's goals to completion.

In theory, interoperability should be simple, but it will likely be somewhat difficult to implement. Interoperability would permit health care providers to review and place a patient's medical information into an electronic chart for the patient. This is a concept that will rely upon -- but be much broader than electronic health records (known as EHRs) -- because all providers will need to communicate and keep one accurate record for the patient and the required technology presumably will be based upon an EHR system. Patients will have to be permitted to restrict certain portions of their medical records, but there will be scenarios (emergent health issues) where physicians and other health care professionals will be permitted to access information without patient consent, which could be impossible to obtain.

California has recognized the importance of interoperability and has a goal to achieve 100 percent compliance between payers and providers in less than 10 years. The state has allocated money to assist the implementation of interoperability, with the goal being to have the Secretaries of the Health and Human Services Agency and the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, the Director of the Department of Managed Care and the State Chief Information Officer work with public and private sector stakeholders to develop a sustainable business model for an e-health network connecting rural health clinics to medical centers throughout the state using telemedicine and other technology.

An eHealth Action Forum was created to develop a comprehensive state policy agenda for health information technology by:

defining the goals and values of health information technology for the purposes of state policy and planning; creating an inventory of the various initiatives underway in the state related to health information technology and assess opportunities for building on those efforts, and replicate those projects that prove the feasibility and business case for health information technology and health information exchange;

identifying the appropriate role of state government in the development of health information technology and health information exchange versus those activities more appropriately coordinated through other entities;

facilitating statewide adoption of standards and interoperability requirements for e-health to enable the secure exchange of health information across the state and nation;

identifying areas where state laws and regulations hinder, rather than facilitate, adoption of health information technology, and recommend strategies to remove such barriers;

identifying and developing strategies for the continued protection of confidentiality and privacy of health information in an electronic environment;

identifying opportunities and strategies for a public/private partnership approach to create financially viable and sustainable business models for health information technology projects in the state;

developing options for advancing the implementation of health information technology through the state's role as a major purchaser, provider and regulator of health care services; and

developing with stakeholders performance metrics to measure the success of the implementation of health information technology throughout California.

In large part, these goals are being achieved through the Privacy and Security Advisory Board (PSAB) of the California Office of HIPAA Implementation. While there is a clear mandate from the state to facilitate and encourage interoperability, the implementation steps of this concept are not clear-cut. There are many models that might work; one option that seems to accomplish many of the goals is based upon the consumer reporting model. A select group of entities could manage your health records in one location, giving providers and others the right to input data, as well as view data, depending on the circumstances. One of the advantages of such a system is that it reduces the chances of having multiple, different records in different providers' hands, all with potentially inconsistent data. It also would seem to reduce the time needed to obtain data in truly emergent situations. While there is agreement on the end goal of interoperability, no model has yet been agreed upon, so there is much work for groups like California's PSAB to do in the years to come.

Preparing for a Hurricane That May Blow Over

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:50:00 -0800

Physicians must be educated on proper documentation to meet ICD-10 code-set specificity and payer-coverage policies. Guest commentary from Holly Louie, RN, CHBME, PCS, corporate compliance officer at Practice Management, Inc., in Boise, Idaho The reimbursement...(read more)

Mammography and the Right to Choose

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:55:00 -0800

Guest commentary from Valerie M. Chapman, RN, MSN I am a wife, a mother of two awesome kids, a daughter, a sister and a nurse. I am also a survivor. At the age of 43 a routine screening mammogram picked up an abnormality in my left breast that turned...(read more)

Achieving Meaningful Use

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:33:00 -0800

Guest commentary from Celwyn C. Evans, a senior partner at Greencastle Associates Consulting in Malvern, Pa. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH)...(read more)

What PAWA Would Mean to Employers

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:38:00 -0800

The Protecting America's Workers Act of 2009, if passed by Congress, would dramatically alter the regulatory regime. Guest commentary from Eric J. Conn and Robert C. Gombar, partners in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, LLP, based in Washington,...(read more)

Building a Foundation for Health Care Transformation

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:56:00 -0800

Evidence-based medicine will improve the quality of care and impact of each health care dollar spent. Guest commentary from Marc Perlman, g lobal vice president, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry, Oracle The U.S. health care industry is challenged...(read more)

Harvard Research Reveals Startling Stats on Veterans

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:57:00 -0800

Guest commentary from Physicians for a National Health Program , an organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance. A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates that 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age...(read more)

MGMA Pleased with House Vote on Health Reform

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:56:00 -0800

Guest commentary from William F. Jessee, MD, FACMPE, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is pleased that the House has voted favorably on H.R. 3962 (The Affordable Health Care for...(read more)

Reform is Historic; Price Tag Could be, Too

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:32:00 -0700

Guest commentary from David St. Clair, founder and CEO of MEDecision, a provider of collaborative health care management solutions. I felt the health care reform news out of Washington last week was decidedly mixed. For those of us who have advocated...(read more)

Whose Numbers Would You Trust?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:25:00 -0700

As the U.S. Senate attempts to merge bills from its Finance and Health committees, considerable controversy surrounds the data being used to support -- or detract from -- proposed measures. For example, in a report prepared for America's Health Insurance...(read more)

Get Ready for a More Aggressive OSHA

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:10:00 -0700

Guest commentary by James A. Lastowka, a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in Washington, D.C., and a member of the firm's OSHA, MSHA & Catastrophe Response Group. The Obama administration's "new OSHA" has a simple message...(read more)

'More is Better' Only Applies to Technology

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:28:00 -0700

Guest commentary by Andrew Schuyler, chief medical officer at MEDecision. In a recent article on the San Francisco Chronicle 's Web site, Dr. Deepak Chopra speculates that a lot of what's wrong with health care today can be attributed to the false notion...(read more)

Health Care Reform

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:10:00 -0700

Guest commentary by Ward Keever, executive director of executive services for CTG HealthCare Solutions. Mr. Keever serves on ADVANCE's editorial advisory board. The hot topic for this summer has been health care reform. It has consumed our Congress as...(read more)

Patient Safety: Getting the Name Wrong May be Fatal

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:48:00 -0700

Guest commentary by Dr. Bruce Lambert, University of Illinois at Chicago professor, Department of Pharmacy Administration, and president, Pharm I. R., Inc.; and Dr. Leonard A Shaefer, IBM chief scientist, Global Name Recognition After taking Flomax, used...(read more)

President Spends a Third of His Time on Health Care

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:12:00 -0700

There's no denying the importance of health care reform within President Barack Obama's agenda. In a July 28 interview with Time magazine's Karen Tumulty, the president said that in the last two to three weeks, he's been spending at least a third of his...(read more)

What Women Need

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:20:00 -0700

Guest commentary by Sabrina Corlette, director of health policy programs for the National Partnership for Women & Families In the halls of Congress, in the media, in the coffee shops and restaurants of Washington, D.C. -- health care reform is dominating...(read more)

Why Health Care IT Lags

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:05:00 -0800

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. Last week, one of our hospitals went live on CPOE. My boss and I were there as part of the ribbon-cutting...(read more)

Best and Worst of Leading

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:06:00 -0800

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age...(read more)

Embrace the Cloud

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:59:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. Friends of mine recently returned from a trip abroad. The advanced wireless infrastructures...(read more)

Work-Life Balance…Debunked!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:29:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. The first thing we boys did after disembarking the school bus was head north for the neighborhood...(read more)

The Politicalization of Health Information Technology

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:26:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. Admit it. Health information technology (HIT) deployment is headed nowhere fast. Despite the...(read more)

Health Care Passion Refueled

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:55:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. My passion for health care sprouted in high school while working in environmental services at...(read more)

Secret of Successful CPOE Adoption

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:59:00 -0700

Before revealing the secret, let me establish credibility. I first implemented electronic health records in 1995. A few years later, while CIO at University Hospitals , we achieved a 95 percent CPOE rate at our academic medical center. Currently, with...(read more)

The Lost Art of Mentoring

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:34:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. Who taught you life skills? Did anyone coach you in the ways of culture and values? An uncle?...(read more)

Legacy Leaders

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:31:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. How can so many of us hold the title of leader, yet never be remembered? Why do some leaders...(read more)

Social Networking: Why Every CIO Must Open the Gates

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:56:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. As the printing press fueled a transition from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance, Social Networking...(read more)

Meaningful Meaningful Use?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:53:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. I ran a "night before vacation" errand to Lowe's. As I completed the purchase, the store manager...(read more)

It's Not About You

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:40:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. I dreaded visits from Battalion HQ. Bravo Company operated fine without Big Brother coming down...(read more)

Facing Fear: A Key Performance Indicator

Tue, 19 May 2009 16:02:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. I landed on the bottom of the ocean, staring up at the surface. Before I could process what...(read more)

Accelerating Health Care IT Adoption

Tue, 05 May 2009 14:54:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. To Teach, To Heal, To Discover -- Six words that captured the essence of the mission of the...(read more)

Health Information Exchange Begins at Home

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:09:00 -0700

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine personally, and are not necessarily representative of Texas Health Resources (THR) or its subsidiaries. To date, I've had the privilege of holding three CIO positions. First, for a physician managed...(read more)

Fighting the Flu with Facebook

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:26:00 -0800

About four months ago, I posted a blog asking our readers if they were using social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., for professional purposes. The majority of those who responded seem to have discovered social media as a pretty...(read more)

‘Till Death Do Us Part...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:05:00 -0800

...well, not really. In the beautiful world of social networking and social media, you can live in infamy, for the rest of your earthly existence or beyond for that matter. Facebook recently posted a blog about the need to memorialize an account when...(read more)

Has Economic Stimulus Created Buyers or Merely Tire-Kickers?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:28:00 -0800

I posted a blog recently about Software Advice posting a survey on its site. Here's the results of their survey about whether stimulus money for electronic health record/electronic medical record (EHR/EMR) adoption was creating any buyers or just tire-kickers....(read more)

Movies and Medical Records

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:30:00 -0800

It's movie night, and you're not interested in subtitles or surrealism. Maybe next week you'll go for the one with the "Winner: Best Foreign Language Film, 2008 Venice Film Festival" sticker on it. But tonight you're in the mood for a poorly acted and...(read more)

The Impact of Economic Stimulus on EMR Adoption

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:31:00 -0700

Software Advice is hosting a survey on its blog until Oct. 29 about the impact the federal economic stimulus bill has had on EMR adoption rates. The article and survey to the link are located here: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/obamas-emr-stimulus-of-2009-creating-buyers-or-tire-kickers-1102709/...(read more)

The Pitch: Watch My Video

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:55:00 -0700

There I was on a recent afternoon searching for more details on the term "meaningful use of an electronic health record," when I started poking around YouTube to see if there were any videos by David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, national coordinator for health...(read more)

Data Disruption Hits Sidekicks

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:39:00 -0700

According to a statement posted on its company Web site on Oct. 10, T-Mobile acknowledged that users lost information stored on the Sidekick device as a result of a server failure at data services provider Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft. T-Mobile's...(read more)

Mourning Paper

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:09:00 -0700

Being 36 years old and a journalist, I have to acknowledge a soft spot for newspapers. I remember a time when the local weekly was really the only game in town when it came to delivering news, sports scores, political commentary and the ruminations of...(read more)

"So"

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:44:00 -0700

A recent report by Accountemps caught my attention as the survey revealed some of the most overused (and annoying) workplace words. I have one that has reached the "annoying" level with me. It is the lovely two-letter word, "so." The word is used to tie...(read more)

Common Ground

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:40:00 -0700

The ruckus surrounding health care reform has been well-documented, here and elsewhere. If you're looking for careful, considered discourse on the U.S. health care system and how to fix it, the seemingly endless stream of "town hall-style" forums and...(read more)

Summer's Winding Down

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:44:00 -0700

While the temperature on the thermometer is registering summer (upper 80s and humid), there's no question that the summer is winding down. My daughter's summer camp just ended and we've already hit the supply aisle at Target for the best deals on back-to-school...(read more)

(Mis)information Overload

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:31:00 -0700

Earlier this week, Bob Mitchell, our managing editor here at ADVANCE , posted a blog chastising the behavior of some overzealous attendees at a recent public debate on U.S. health care reform held in the Philadelphia area. But the City of Brotherly Love...(read more)

Health Reform? Good Chance, Not

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:32:00 -0700

Vile. Nasty. I have to hang my head in shame. The behavior of some of my neighboring Pennsylvania's residents who came to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia recently to discuss, oops, yell about health care reform was unbelievable. An IT...(read more)

A Gratifying Experience

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:05:00 -0700

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about a new wave of microvolunteerism sweeping through cyberspace, and noted that I would be doing my own form of volunteering through Habitat for Humanity in the coming weeks. It was the first time I had undertaken such...(read more)

Sorting Out Social Networking

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:26:00 -0700

This is probably an unfair generalization. But for some of us over 30, it's been tempting to dismiss online social networking as the domain of teens and Millennials who hardly remember a time when they couldn't instantly share their every opinion, mood...(read more)