Articles and Blogs

On July 23 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm EST, National eHealth Collaborative will host Robert Anthony of the Office of E-Health Standards and Services at CMS to give tips and tricks in a second program in the series on how to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 1.  In this program, Robert will address hot topics and frequently asked…Read More

Federal regulations are an enormous morass of complex, confusing, and often contradictory rules. The 2009 Code of Federal Regulations was 163,333 pages in 226 individual books.  The 2010 Federal Register, which contains new regulations proposed rules, and presidential papers, contained an additional 81,305 pages.  Intended as a roadmap, providing guideposts and requirements for dealing with…Read More

ONC has announced accreditation of 5 certification bodies and test laboratories to certify and test Electronic Health Records technology in the ONC Permanent Certification Program.

Recently a new and unique “legal” source has been popping up in litigation. As you may know, Wikipedia is a collaborative online encyclopedia and according to a January 29, 2007, Article from The New York Times, “more than 100 judicial rulings have relied on Wikipedia, beginning in 2004, including 13 from Circuit Court of Appeals,…Read More

On July 6, 2012, the FCC issued an order in which it indicated that it would likely issue revised regulations for the Universal Service Fund (USF). Specifically, within Docket 02-06 the FCC has been entertaining comments regarding reform to the USF in the following three areas:

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Implementations are complex and challenging. Even after substantial preparation, due diligence and physician commitment, implementations do fail. If you are struggling with an EHR implementation, here are four action items to help you navigate the storm:

The EEOC keeps track of what it’s doing.  Fiscal year statistics of filings in the various categories of discrimination show what’s trending in the most active areas of “interest” for employees and the EEOC. With that in mind, employers often find it helpful to stay on top of trends in those charges.  

Since 2005, a group of associations, such as LeadingAge, AHCA, AMDA, and many others, has hosted an annual summit to discuss the information technology (IT) issues long term care and post acute care providers face.  The group, known as the Long Term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC)  Collaborative, publishes a Road Map for LTPAC providers to follow…Read More

The DSH Dilemma In a letter sent to governors this week, Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made clear  the Obama Administration still intends to cut Disproportionate Share Hospital (“DSH”) funding despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that allows states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) Medicaid expansion requirement.  What is not…Read More

When is “Treatment” actually treatment under the FMLA? Imagine that your employee who has been diagnosed with anxiety and chronic back pain asked for FMLA leave for an afternoon doctor appointment.  Your employee had already provided a doctor’s certification that his condition required periodic treatments but the afternoon appointment was with a different doctor.  So, you grant…Read More