Articles and Blogs

The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) fined three separate hospitals a cumulative total of $999,000 to settle potential violations of HIPAA arising from allowing film crews on premises to film a reality television show without first obtaining patient authorizations. The OCR Resolution Agreement can be found here. Generally, a... READ MORE

Earlier this year, Hall Render attorneys Ammon Fillmore and Melissa Markey published a series of articles with Becker’s Hospital Review on blockchain technology and its impact, potential benefits and challenges within health care. Blockchain Technology: Building Trust in the Supply Chain In this article, learn what blockchain is, how it relates to cryptocurrency and... READ MORE

On January 3, 2018, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) issued final regulations (“Final Rule“)[i] intended to update and modernize the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations at Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2 (“Part 2“).[ii]... READ MORE

As hospitals and health-related entities, like other businesses, continue to shift application hosting and data storage to the cloud and to third party data centers, they should consider what obligations to place on vendors that provide such hosting and data storage services to promote data security. One such obligation may be to require hosting... READ MORE

Annually, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) provides $400 million in funding to health care providers who serve rural populations through its Rural Health Care Program (“RHC Program”). The RHC Program is aimed at improving and reducing the cost of communications services that are used in providing health care services to residents of the rural... READ MORE

In a December 28, 2017, a memo (“Memo”) to state survey agency directors, CMS made clear that texting patient information is allowed as long as a secure texting platform is used, recognizing the importance of texting as an “essential and valuable means of communication among the team members” caring for patients. Providers must comply with... READ MORE

For an update to this article, please click here. As stated in our previous blog, while there has been no official guidance from CMS regarding a broad prohibition on the texting of protected health information (“PHI”), there has been significant discussion in industry circles about CMS’s recently stated position against texting PHI. As reported in... READ MORE

For an update to this article, please click here. If your organization allows texting, consider recent CMS communications prohibiting all texting Hall Render has become aware that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has been communicating to hospitals that texting is unacceptable, even through secure text messaging applications, due to concerns about the... READ MORE

On September 6, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) published final guidance (“Guidance”) summarizing its recommendations for medical devices that are connected to each other and to other technology (“interoperable medical devices”). The Guidance finalizes preliminary guidance from January 2016 and is intended to encourage rapid innovation in the marketplace by allowing... READ MORE

Eligible Professionals participating in the Medicare Meaningful Use Electronic Health Record Incentive Program have until October 1, 2017 to submit a hardship application to avoid a downward payment adjustment in 2018. A participant may submit a hardship application if the Eligible Professional: Is a first-time Eligible Professional who intends to participate in the advancing care information performance... READ MORE