EMR Implementation & HITECH Act Blog
A blog for doctors and medical office staff seeking assistance with EMR and the HITECH Act.
Category Archives: HITECH Act
2010
Research Shows That Electronic Medical Records Save Babies’ Lives
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We talk a lot in this blog about the financial aspects of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), and with good reason – they can entail a substantial investment in time and money. But it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the purpose of all that investment – to save lives.
2010
NIST Begins Rolling Out EHR Performance Testing Program
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There are hundreds and hundreds of Electronic Health Record software packages in the marketplace that claim to be capable of allowing you to establish meaningful use, but how do you know if those claims are true? So far there has not been an impartial, independent way to determine the truthfulness of a vendor’s claims.
Filed under: Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act, Meaningful Use
Tagged: EHR, Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act
2010
HIT Safety Concerns Spotlighted by FDA, HHS and Senator Grassley
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We’re less than a year into the implementation of the HITECH Act signed into law by an administration that wants every American to have an EMR by 2014, and questions are already being raised as to the safety of Health Information Technology. It looks more and more like error and adverse event reporting will be an integral part of implementation of EHRs. Both Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to start tracking errors caused or created by EMRs, EHRs and other health information technologies.
Filed under: CPOE, EHR, EMR, HITECH Act
Tagged: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, HITECH, HITECH Implementation
2010
Certification of EMRs Takes a Big Step Forward
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The two most important aspects of any electronic medical records system have been meaningful use and certification. Meaningful use, as we discussed in an earlier post, has finally been defined. Now the certification process is being clarified.
Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, Meaningful Use
Tagged: Electronic Medical Records, EMR, EMR Compliance, EMR Implementation, HIT
2010
Business Associates Now Subject To Security Rules and Penalties
The HITECH Act was signed into law just one year ago. That wouldn’t be noteworthy, except that at the one-year anniversary of its signing, HIPAA privacy rules became applicable to business associates of covered entities.
Previously, covered entities weren’t subject to these rules, except to the extent that they were governed by their business associate agreements (BAAs).
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Filed under: HIPAA, HITECH Act
Tagged: HIPAA, HITECH Act, HITECH and HIPAA
2010
ONC Appoints New Chief Privacy Officer
When the HITECH Act was signed into law last year, it was evident that privacy would be a big part of compliance with the new laws. And sure enough, among the changes were the extension of HIPAA privacy requirements to business associates and other third parties, and increased penalties which now can run into the millions.Filed under: HITECH Act
Tagged: HITECH Act, Joy Pritts, ONCHIT
2010
Meaningful Use of EMR Has Finally Been Defined
One of the key factors in obtaining incentive funds from the government for the implementation of Electronic Medical Records is the definition of meaningful use. You must prove that you are using a certified system in a meaningful way to qualify for the $40,0000+ incentive payments available to eligible practitioners (EP).
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Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, Meaningful Use
Tagged: EMR, Meaningful Use, ONCHIT
2009
CPOEs, EHRs and Massachusetts Law
Massachusetts takes its electronic health records (EHRs) very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that last year it passed a law requiring hospitals to use EHRs and doctors to be competent using EHRs by 2015. The same law also mandated hospital use of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems by October 1, 2012.
The law, signed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, also created and funded the Massachusetts e-Health Institute (MeHI) to be the guiding force behind the implementations of Electronic Health Records and CPOE. Part of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), a statewide development agency, MeHI is already looking at EHRs for use in Massachusetts hospitals.
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Filed under: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, HIT, HITECH Act
Tagged: CPOE, EHR, Electronic Health Records, HITECH Act
2009
HHS Publishes New Data Breach Penalties
As we talked about in an earlier post (The HITECH Act and Encryption), there are penalties to be paid if all the medical data you are collecting in your electronic medical records (EMRs) should fall into the wrong hands. PC Healthstop is keeping close tabs on these new HITECH implementation regulations as they roll out, so we can provide you with any new details as they become available.
The government – specifically Health and Human Services (HHS) – has just issued an interim final regulation about breaches of the electronic medical records (EMRs).
The maximum penalties used to be $100 per violation, to a maximum of just $25,000 for all related violations. Under the new rules, the penalties start at $100 / $25,000. There will now be 5 levels of severity, ending at $50,000 per violation with a cap of $1.5 million!
To see all the details go to HIPAA Administrative Simplication: Enforcement , (page 56123).
Rich Silverman
PCHS Blogging Team
Photo by Jonathunder courtesy of Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution sharealike license.
Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, HIPAA, HITECH Act
Tagged: EMR Breach Penalties, EMR Breach Penalty, HIPAA Violations, HITECH Penalties
2009
Health Information Technology: A View From The Inside, Part 2
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In a continuation of yesterday’s post, we’ll finish our discussion with Dr. Brian Keaton, President and CEO of NEO RHIO. NEO RHIO is a Regional Health Information Organization serving 22 counties in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Keaton is a past President and Board Chairman of the 26,000 member American College of Emergency Physicians, an emergency physician and a professor of emergency medicine at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Let’s continue to hear from him about how all the pieces of the EMR puzzle will fit together in relation to the HITECH Act.
Filed under: EMR, Electronic Medical Records, HITECH Act
Tagged: EMR, HITECH, HITECH Incentives, RHIO
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