Articles and Blogs

On March 3, 2020, the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $100,000 settlement with a physician practice (“Practice”) that it found to be significantly out of compliance with the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). While OCR was investigating the Practice’s complaint against... READ MORE

On August 26, 2019, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) issued two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records at Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2 (“Part 2”). Part 2 is a federal privacy law that protects substance... 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

The news of the $155 million settlement between eClinicalWorks (“eCW”), several eCW employees and the U.S. Department of Justice has left many current users of the eClinicalWorks EHR (“eCW EHR”) wondering what impact it will have upon them. First, the terms of the settlement provide several rights to current users. Second, actions taken to... READ MORE

The Cures Act addresses certain electronic health record (“EHR”) difficulties faced by physicians who practice primarily in ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”). Section 16003 explicitly excludes physicians who furnish substantially all of their Medicare services at ASCs from the penalties imposed under various programs for failure to adopt a certified EHR. Under the current Medicare... READ MORE

CMS has indicated that it intends to extend Stage 2 of meaningful use attestation under the Medicare/Medicaid Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) Incentive Program.  In a recent blog post, CMS states that the new or modified Stage 3 requirements for becoming a meaningful user of a certified EHR technology will not be effective until 2017... READ MORE

As reported by the Post-Tribune, Methodist Hospitals has settled a dispute with Medical Information Technology (MEDITECH), FTI Cambio and HealthNET related to the failed implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) sytem.  If you are experiencing challenges with an EHR implementation, please see our prior post 4 Action Items When Facing an EHR Software Implementation Failure or... READ MORE

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: READ MORE

Since 2005, a group of associations known as the Long Term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC) Health Information Technology Collaborative (the Collaborative) have hosted the annual LTPAC Health IT Summit to discuss and advance health IT issues for long LTPAC providers.  Following the Summit, the Collaborative publishes a Road Map that identifies the progress... READ MORE