Edition Twenty-Nine (9/29/09)

Providers Not Ready for HITECH Compliance
HealthLeaders, 9/25/09
HHS released its interim final rule on breach notification, calling for greater and more swift notification requirements when there is a breach of unsecure PHI. It's one requirement in the HITECH Act which has providers worrying about compliance. The HITECH Act calls for increased HIPAA enforcement, stiffer monetary penalties for privacy and security violations, and more patient rights on their medical records.

Coalition Pushes for More Health Care I.T. Legislation
Healthcare IT News, 9/24/09
The Health I.T. Now! Coalition announced it will continue to push lawmakers to include measures to promote health care I.T. in any health care reform legislation up for consideration. Leaders of the non-profit organization dedicated to educating lawmakers and the public on the benefits of health care I.T. said they hope the National Health I.T. Week in Washington, D.C. will re-energize policymakers to consider legislation with health I.T. applications. 

HHS Holds Keys to Next Generation of Health Information Privacy
iHealthbeat, 9/24/09
While lawmakers continue to debate health reform, health I.T. is already poised to be a major factor in changing how health care is delivered. Recognizing health I.T.'s potential to enhance efficiency and quality of care, Congress made a substantial taxpayer investment in health I.T. earlier this year through ARRA. ARRA devotes significant attention to strengthening the privacy and security of health information.

Health Data Breach Rules Become Effective
Health Data Management, 9/23/09
New rules, governing consumer notification when the security of their health information is breached, go into effect this week. But federal agencies won't enforce the rules for several more months. Both rules were mandated under ARRA.

Privacy Group Calls for High Bar
Health Data Management, 9/23/09
The Patient Privacy Rights consumer advocacy coalition is calling on the HIT Policy Committee to set the bar high for privacy as the government implements the law's health I.T. provisions. The health care and health data mining industries will not willingly build and use privacy-enhancing EHRs and systems unless you act to set a high bar, according to Deborah Peel, M.D., founder of the coalition.

Rep. Kennedy: Reform Heightens Urgency of Health I.T.
Government Health IT, 9/22/09
Health I.T. advocates on Capitol Hill pledged to keep up their push for health I.T. measures in health care reform and other pending legislation, despite the massive commitment to health I.T. already made in the economic stimulus package. At a briefing, lawmakers said even with health I.T. provisions in the stimulus and reform bills, they want to be sure funding continues to be available.

America's Healthy Future Act's HIT Implications
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/21/09
A broad blueprint for health reform, released by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), holds a number of provisions meant to strengthen electronic communications under federal privacy laws, encourage the use of EHRs, and guide a medical workforce which is not always proficient in HIT. The $856 billion bill, called America's Healthy Future Act, is expected to go in front of the full committee, where lawmakers will have a chance to amend the current framework.

HIT Policy Committee Holds Privacy Hearing Today
Healthcare IT News, 9/18/09
The HIT Policy Committee is holding a hearing to discuss the privacy aspects of health care I.T. found in ARRA. Jodi Daniel, director of the Office of Policy and Research at ONCHIT, said privacy and security are fundamental building blocks for meaningful use of health care I.T. The success of health HIT and exchange rests on consumer and provider confidence in privacy and security protections.

Breach Rules Require New Look at HIPAA
Health Data Management, 9/18/09
New federal requirements under ARRA governing the notification of breaches of protected health information bring major changes to the HIPAA privacy and security rules. Health care organizations must update their privacy and security policies and procedures to ensure an adequate response to breach incidents. Not only does ARRA strengthen privacy and security rules, but it also gives state attorneys general the right to enforce HIPAA privacy and security rules. 

Feds Unsure About HIPAA Enforcement Practices
HealthLeaders, 9/18/09
Flash back to February 17, 2009. President Obama signed into law the $787 billion ARRA, which included provisions for heightened HIPAA enforcement and stiffer penalties for privacy and security violations. The next day, HHS and the FTC announced CVS had to pay the U.S. government $2.25 million and take corrective action in a settlement for potential privacy breaches affecting millions of patients. But today there is uncertainty about the promised HIPAA enforcement.

ONC: 2011 Criteria to be Basic
Health Data Management, 9/17/09
The federal government intends to implement a basic level of initial 2011 criteria for meaningful use of EHRs systems to determine who will receive Medicare and Medicaid incentives under ARRA. The meaningful use criteria then will get tougher in 2013 and 2015. Because the start of the incentive program in 2011 will be here in the blink of an eye, the government's meaningful use definition must focus on goals hospitals and physicians can achieve quickly and reasonably. 

Interest in HIT Adoption is High, But Meaningful Use will Take Time, Experts Say
Healthcare IT News, 9/16/09
Experts and federal officials close to the issue of health care I.T. adoption and the promotion of meaningful use under the new stimulus package say intentions are high, but the actual work which lies ahead is monumental. Mark Spranca, a health care I.T. expert with Abt Associates, recommends policymakers keep an open mind when developing strategies to implement the HITECH Act found in the stimulus package. 

House Caucus Hears Pitch for Best Approach to Health Care I.T. Adoption
Healthcare IT News, 9/16/09
The concept Joe Fortuna wanted to emphasize to lawmakers on Capitol Hill is health care I.T. by itself is not the end point. Fortuna, chairman-elect of the health care division of the American Society of Quality, spoke to the 21st Century Health Care Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Health Care I.T. is the Means, But Not the End, Says Blumenthal
Healthcare IT News, 9/16/09
Getting health care I.T. up and running in doctors' offices is not the main objective behind the incentives provided by the federal government under ARRA. Improving health is. According to David Blumenthal, privacy is critical and absolutely foundational to realizing the vision the Obama administration has for improving health care through I.T.

HHS' New Civil Rights Chief to Enforce HIPAA Security
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/16/09
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appointed Georgina Verdugo, a former prosecutor and Clinton administration official to lead the department's civil rights office, which recently took over enforcement of HIPAA. In August, Sebelius consolidated enforcement authority in the civil rights office with a reach newly extended to business associates of health care organizations as a result ARRA.

AHA Urges Review of ‘Meaningful Use' Definition
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/16/09
Officials with American Hospital Association urged the Health Information Technology Standards Committee to reconsider its proposed definition of “meaningful use” in the context of ARRA. Beth Feldpush, a senior associate director of policy with the AHA, told the committee the association believes meaningful use should be defined by the ability to use the systems to improve patient care.

Advisory Panel OKs Privacy Standards
Health Data Management, 9/16/09
The HIT Standards Committee, a federal advisory panel created under ARRA, has approved recommendations of its privacy and security workgroup. The recommendations provide technical data standards and guidelines to support privacy and security requirements under the law's meaningful use provisions for certified electronic health record systems.

Blumenthal Calls for More Study on Uses of Health I.T.
Government Health IT, 9/14/09
Blumenthal anticipates an enormous amount of research will be needed to determine the effectiveness of health I.T. at the same time as it is widely deployed under the stimulus. Until now, research about health I.T. has been limited, and the stimulus will establish EHRs in many settings which have not been studied. Blumenthal believes more documented research will help providers put their systems into practice and use it effectively. 

AHRQ: Consumers Don’t Understand Health I.T.
Government Health IT, 9/14/09
Consumers need more education about how HIT will influence their care as EHRs become more prevalent, according to a study by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ). The study polled members of several consumer focus groups to gauge their knowledge of EHRs and how health I.T. could improve health care quality. Findings indicated many people do not understand the emphasis on health I.T. in the health care reform debate.

Charting a New Course: Electronic Medical Records are Here, and They Come Not Without Challenges, Controversy or Expense
CBS News, 9/13/09
The debate over health care reform is proving to be a no-holds barred battle but electronic records have already provided one big change. The President's plan to redesign the nation's health care system turns out to be just the tiniest bit controversial, but what you may not know is Congress has already approved and funded one program: the plan to computerize your medical records.



$68M in HEAL Funds Coming to WNY
Business First of Buffalo, 9/25/09
A proposal for a $30 million full-asset merger of Kenmore Mercy Hospital, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, and Sisters of Charity into its parent, the Catholic Health System, was among a dozen local projects awarded funding by New York state. The project, which will receive $7 million in support, was among a dozen projects at Western New York hospitals and health care organizations cited to receive $68 million from the state to implement HIT, support capital restructuring, and long-term care improvements.

e-Records Get a Big Endorsement from Hospitals
New York Times, 9/28/09
A New York hospital group is set to announce a sizable investment, intended as a linchpin in the group's $400 million commitment to digitize patient records throughout its system, including 13 hospitals. North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System plans to offer its 7,000 affiliated doctors subsidies of up to $40,000 each over five years to adopt digital patient records. This would be in addition to federal support for computerizing patient records, which can total $44,000 per doctor over five years.

Michigan Unveils Strategy to Garner Stimulus I.T. Funds
NextGov, 9/25/09
The Recovery Act included more than $25 billion in grants aimed at improving the nation's technology infrastructure and expanding adoption of EHRs. The unprecedented amount of federal funding for health I.T. and broadband initiatives has provided some economic hope to states like Michigan, which boasts the highest unemployment rate in the country.

Time for e-Records is Now, But It isn't Easy
Buffalo News, 9/24/09
President Obama has vowed to bring medicine into the information age as part of health care reform, saying it will save billions of dollars and reduce medical errors. Buffalo's system is in its infancy, although further ahead than many others in the nation. The first time it was turned on in an emergency room recently at Erie County Medical Center illustrates how the paperless future envisioned by Obama and others will work.

Tool Compares Fed, State Privacy Laws
Health Data Management, 9/24/09
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration has launched on its Web site a crosswalk tool to make sense of federal and state health privacy and security laws. The crosswalk, available for providers and consumers, is designed to enable searches of federal and Florida laws and help determine which law governs the sharing of particular information.

Camden Hospitals to Create Health Records Exchange
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/22/09
In a model which could be copied by other cities, the three major health systems serving Camden are joining with local doctors to share health records of patients who give their permission, enabling doctors to give more timely and informed care. Cooper University Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, and Virtua Health plan to join with most primary-care providers in the city of 70,000 to create an exchange giving doctors access to such records as hospital discharge summaries, lab results, medications, and X-rays.

Efforts Renewed for Medical Information Network
Knoxville News Sentinel, 9/21/09
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources estimates $48.8 billion in recovery funds will be spent on health care information technology. The new urgency follows the five-year announcement of an ambitious plan to create the East Tennessee Health Information Network to allow hospital systems and health care providers to share information through a centralized data bank, thereby improving patient care, increasing efficiency, and cutting costs.

State Forms Four New Health Panels
Statesman Journal, 9/20/09
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has submitted appointees for four new state panels created by the 2009 Legislature: Oregon Health Policy Board, Health Information Technology Oversight Council, Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission, and Oregon State Hospital Advisory Board. All appointees are subject to Senate conformation.

Maryland Takes Lead in Electronic Medical Records
Baltimore Sun, 9/18/09
The Obama administration's push to create an electronic patient record for every American has gained steam in Washington, with billions of dollars expected to be spent over the next five years. But in Maryland the process is ahead of schedule because Maryland's three largest hospital systems and a large retirement community operator are building a statewide information exchange network, CRISP, which could be up and running before any federal network. 

Deadline Looms for State HIE Grants
Health Data Management, 9/16/09
States have until Oct. 16 to apply for federal funding under ARRA to support HIE initiatives. One grant will be awarded per state, ranging from $4 million to $40 million.

I.T. in Wisconsin Acute-Care Hospitals on the Rise: Study
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/15/09
Wisconsin hospitals have spent heavily on HIT in the past few years, but independent providers and critical-access hospitals are lagging in implementation, despite spending the same amount of money on the systems as everyone else. A new survey by the Wisconsin Hospital Association finds the 125 acute-care hospitals in the state have made advances in technology use since the 2006 adoption of the Wisconsin eHealth Action Plan.

Michigan Seeking Federal Grants to Expand Regional Health Information Exchanges
Crain's Detroit Business, 9/15/09
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm announced the state will apply for grant funding through ARRA to expand the state’s proposed regional HIEs. Over the last three years, Michigan has been working on creating the Michigan Health Information Network, which includes seven regional HIEs, which ultimately will enable doctors, hospitals, insurers, and other providers to share medical information on patients.

Grant Boosts Area Test of Electronic Medical Data
Buffalo News, 9/14/09
A consortium of medical groups has received a $1 million grant from the Medical Society of the State of New York to take the region’s first step toward creating a system, which allows doctors to exchange electronic patient health records. The effort is likely to eventually expand to all local medical offices, especially with the federal government encouraging doctors with enhanced payments to adopt and use EHRs.

University of Arizona Gets Grant for Electronic Med Files
Arizona Daily Star, 9/12/09
The University of Arizona College of Medicine's Arizona Telemedicine Program has received a $1.13 million federal grant for its part in the nationwide effort to switch to EMRs. The money will be used to create the Tucson-based Southwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center, which will cover Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah and will be part of a national network of centers.

North Carolina Pursues $100M for Electronic Records
Triangle Business Journal, 9/11/09
North Carolina is in the final stages of submitting proposals to obtain nearly $100 million in stimulus funds to create a health I.T. network which would put medical records in electronic form and connect hospitals, physicians, and patients statewide. Even as the health care reform debate rages, states are submitting proposals to ONCHIT, which has set an aggressive timeline of approving proposals by December and for projects to begin in early 2010.



Population Puts U.S. at HIT Disadvantage: Report
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/25/09
The U.S., which has low rates of adoption of HIT compared with other industrialized nations, is starting from a disadvantage in most areas researchers measure to predict health I.T. adoption because of population, according to a new report, “Health I.T.: Explaining International I.T. Application Leadership.” The U.S. does have at least two factors going in its favor with Obama: strong endorsement from national leaders, and financial incentives to overcome the high initial cost of adoption, both of which were addressed by ARRA.

They Witnessed the 'Big Bang'
Health Data Management, 9/17/09
"Big Bang" deployments of EHR technology are not for the faint-hearted. The rapid roll-out of multiple modules in a clinical information system requires equal measures of organizational commitment and in-depth preparation. Bill McQuaid, CIO at Parkview Adventist Medical Central, Brunswick, Maine, led a best-of-breed replacement project. Parkview deployed 23 modules from MEDITECH in about six months—and this was just the first phase.

Quality Measure Format Could Change EHR Analysis
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/17/09
A new format being vetted by Health Level 7 has the potential to change the way quality measures are reported and analyzed through EHRs. The Health Quality Measure Format, or HQMF, provides an infrastructure, which allows information technology developers to create electronic measures. The format is going through HL7's ballot process now.

California Attorney General to Unveil On-line Rx Database
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/15/09
California will join more than 20 states by providing doctors and pharmacies with a secure Web site to track a patient's history of prescription drug use. California Attorney General Jerry Brown plans to unveil the on-line portal, which aims to cut down doctor shopping and curb prescription drug abuse by making information more readily available.

Archives