HIT Blawg Named a Top 50 Blog for Health Administration

The folks over at Health Hut have come out with a list of the Top 50 Blogs to learn about health administration.  I am proud and honored to have this blog among those selected for inclusion.

Congrats to the others selected as well.

HIPAA Holidays!

Susan Ziel and I got together recently to prepare a short video on HIPAA updates.  You can view the video here.

The 30-minute briefing reviews some of the significant amendments to HIPAA that were enacted under Title XIII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ("HITECH") Act. This HIPAA briefing is one of our "first efforts" to bring you useful compliance information that can be accessed online, anytime, at no cost to you. You can access our briefing by viewing this email as a web page (or by clicking here). We also encourage you to make this "user friendly" briefing available to your professionals and staff as part of your ongoing HIPAA compliance program. We wish you and your organization "HIPAA Holidays" and a very successful 2010!

PHR Report Card

Patient Privacy Rights has released its report card on Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and which PHRs protect patient privacy.  So which PHRs scored best?  No More Clipboard scored an "A" while Google Health scored a "D/F", Microsoft Healthvault a "B/F", WebMD and CapMed's ICEPHR each scored a "C" and PHRs offered by employers and insurers scored a flat "F".

I have to extend my thanks to Dr. Kari Harno of Helsinki (Finland) University Central Hospital for bringing the report card to my attention.

CCHIT Certifies First Group of EHRs

CHICAGO – The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology announced today the first group of products certified for use with the proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ("ARRA") incentive requirements.

None of the offerings appear to be from major EHR vendors.  The products announced Tuesday as certified in the Preliminary ARRA 2011 program are:

• eHealth Made EASY, version 3, by eHealth Made EASY, LLC, supporting two of 27 meaningful use objectives for eligible providers and two of 24 objectives for hospitals.
• KIS Track, version 5.1, by Kaulkin Information Systems, supporting two of 27 objectives for eligible providers.
• Medios, version 4.5, by IOS Health Systems, supporting all 27 objectives for eligible providers.

Engage with Grace Blog Rally

At the request of my good friend, Bob Coffield, I am joining the Engage with Grace blog rally to spread the word about end of life planning.  Unfortunately, I had personal experience with this topic due to the death of my father a few months ago.  It is a difficult discussion but one for which I admire my Dad a great deal.  He made a decision and we all respected his choice.  May you and your loved ones have such a thoughtful and dignified discussion when the time comes.

Happy Thanksgiving.

EHR and Legal Liability Task Force

I have the good fortune of co-leading an American Health Lawyers Association Task Force on Electronic Health Records and Legal Liability. For those of you who might be interested in this topic and/or participation, please let me know. The Task Force will seek to address the issues and concerns relating to EHRs, Personal Health Records, and Health Information Exchange.

This is a tremendously interesting area of the law. The developments in EHR adoption and implementation are on the cutting edge of legal liability and sometimes beyond that.

AHIMA Lobbying Aggressively Against Red Flag Exemption

AHIMA Recently sent a letter to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to oppose any consideration of HR 3763, legislation that would exempt certain businesses, including healthcare practices with 20 or fewer employees, from the requirements of the Red Flags Rule. AHIMA is asking members to send a letter to their Senators opposing this legislation.

Interesting position by AHIMA in seeking to have the Red Flag Rules apply to these smaller practices and one that is certain not to win them any fans among physician groups.