Articles and Blogs

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General have released a set of proposed regulations that extend the existing protection from the Anti-Kickback Statute and physician self-referral law (Stark Law) for donations of electronic health records. READ MORE

The final rule for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use (“MU”) included an outline of the timeline for reviewing and publishing updates to the Clinical Quality Measure (“CQM”) specifications used in the EHR Incentive Program with the determination that the specifications should be updated more frequently than the rulemaking cycle for the Medicare and Medicaid... READ MORE

ONC is seeking comments on how ONC and CMS policies could result in routine exchange of patient clinical data across care settings.  The deadline to submit comments is April 22, 2013. Click here for more information and procedures for comment submission. Should you have questions, please contact Alisa Kuehn at akuehn@hallrender.com or (317) 977-1475. READ MORE

The ONC has made available on its website (healthit.gov) a variety of resources to assist those working toward Meaningful Use.  Below are links to a few of these resources: Click here for information on attestation, tipsheets, FAQs, tools and regulations related to Meaningful Use Stage 2. Click here to access the 2014 Edition Test... READ MORE

Bureau of National Affairs is reporting that CMS and the OIG have submitted proposed regulations to extend the exception from the physician self-referral law and the safe harbor under the anti-kickback statute for EHR donations.  The report indicates that proposed regulations have been sumitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for... READ MORE

ECRI Institute has released its list of the Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2013.  The annual report is based on the prevalence and severity of incidents reported by health care facilities and information found in the Institute’s medical device problem reporting databases. READ MORE

The National eHealth Collaborative will host two upcoming Health Information Exchange Governance Town Hall Meetings.  These Town Hall Meetings aim to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to describe and offer input on their experiences, practices, issues, priorities and suggestions regarding Health Information Exchange Governance initiatives. READ MORE

The Federal Communication Commission (“FCC”) released rules governing how it will distribute $150 million annually out of the Healthcare Connect Fund to qualifying health care providers to support the provision of health care services to the rural population.  The Healthcare Connect Fund grows on the experience and lessons learned by the FCC through its... READ MORE

Several southeastern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) collaborated under the direction of ONC to analyze the country’s ability to respond to disasters through the use of Health Information Exchange (HIE).  This initiative, called the Southeast Regional HIT-HIE Collaboration (SERCH) project,  focused on the development of a strategic plan for sharing health information among states... 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