Compliance & Legal
By creating new definitions and revising others, the proposed rule targets health and wellness technology companies operating outside of HIPAA and qualitatively expands the scope of what constitutes a PHR.
Healthcare organizations must urge the Senate to pass critical telehealth legislation, and enact at least a two-year extension of the important PHE-era policies while working toward a permanent solution.
Compliance is a serious, enforceable matter – and must be properly addressed in the context of the workplace challenges and changes that have emerged amid the pandemic.
On the surface, like with other HHS settlements, it may seem harsh, regarding only the amount of money vis-a-vis the number of patients affected. But it's important to consider what OCR is trying to accomplish.
When working with big data, small inconsistencies in data entry matter. Leaving the task of cleaning up registration or demographic data to data scientists or IT staff will be expensive.
CMS requirements for approved clinical decision support mechanisms could cause extra burden and more keystrokes for physicians attempting to meet appropriate use criteria.
Results of two polls published in the past week, from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Pew Research Center, demonstrate growing support for the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
John Halamka, MD, served the Bush administration for four years and the Obama administration for six. Change in Washington happens incrementally, he says: There is always an evolution, not a revolution, regardless of speechmaking hyperbole.
"As I've said many times, one of the great challenges we have is that the 2015 Edition final rule has an enormous scope extending beyond meaningful use with the notion that it can be coupled to every government healthcare IT program," writes John Halamka, MD.
2015 has been filled with denial of service attacks, hard-to-detect malware, and a skyrocketing number of personal internet connected devices at the same time that HIPAA enforcement has expanded.
