June 2010 - EMR and HIPAA

Potential Medicare Exodus and EMR Stimulus Penalties

The idea that there will be penalties is a joke. The ongoing (10 years and counting) SGR debacle has thoroughly disgusted physicians who have already begun to reduce or completely eliminate Medicare patients from their practice. If Medicare starts to...

Published Wed, Jun 30 2010 11:10 AM by EMR and EHR

EHR Certifying Bodies

I found this interesting tidbit in the final rule for the EHR Temporary Certification Plan: “In the Proposed Rule, we stated that we anticipated that there would be no more than 3 applicants for ONC-ATCB status. Based on the comments received, we now...

Published Wed, Jun 30 2010 11:02 AM by EMR and HIPAA

EMR Challenges Faced by RECs

I’ve been meaning to write a post linking to BobbyG’s blog for a while and just never got around to it. If you follow the comments on here, you’ll have seen many of BobbyG’s comments as well. The thing that first struck me about...

Published Tue, Jun 29 2010 11:41 AM by EMR and HIPAA

6 EHR Myths

I got the following 6 EHR myths from this presentation: Myth #1: EHR Projects are IT Projects Myth #2: EHR Software is useful out of the box Myth #3: EHR Vendors will provide all the project management and assistance I need Myth #4: I can manage my own...

Published Mon, Jun 28 2010 11:47 AM by EMR and EHR

Will Meaningful Use be Relaxed?

After my post on EMR and EHR about Relaxing of the Meaningful Use rule, I thought it would be interesting to do a quick poll on what people think will happen with the Meaningful Use rule. Should be an interesting result: Related posts:EMR Meaningful Use...

Published Mon, Jun 28 2010 11:47 AM by EMR and HIPAA

Private Payers and Meaningful Use

Is it time for Private Payers to join in on Meaningful Use? A number of people are starting to ask this question after CSC released a recent white paper called “Meaningful Use for Health Plans: Five Things to Consider.” I’ve always said...

Published Fri, Jun 25 2010 2:04 PM by EMR and HIPAA

Relaxing of Meaningful Use Final Rule

There’s a lot of interesting speculation going on right now around what HHS is going to do in regards to meaningful use. There’s no doubt that a lot of the feedback given to HHS on meaningful use surrounded the idea that it was too much and...

Published Fri, Jun 25 2010 1:15 PM by EMR and EHR

The Falling Chart – Another Case for EMR

Sometimes when we think about EMR, I think we forget about the subtle nuances of paper charts that make them so undesirable. Check out this story which I got in response to my post called “Think About the Problems with Paper Charting.” It’s...

Published Thu, Jun 24 2010 2:14 PM by EMR and HIPAA

ARRA Q&A: Are imaging costs recoupable under the HITECH act?

Corey sent me the following question: Are imaging costs recoupable under the HITECH act? Corey, There are 2 major sections to receive stimulus money from the HITECH act. One is through Medicare and the other is through Medicaid. The Medicare related stimulus...

Published Wed, Jun 23 2010 2:41 PM by EMR and HIPAA

CCHIT Comments on Final Rule for Temporary EHR Certification

After noting that CCHIT had gone quiet and posting about Drummond Group’s view of the EHR certification final rule, it seems appropriate that CCHIT has finally come out with their own comments. The CCHIT blog post was done by Alisa Ray but says...

Published Wed, Jun 23 2010 2:22 AM by EMR and EHR

EMR Question and Answer: Domain Controlled Networks

I got the following question from Brandon about the need to have a domain controlled network in order to comply with HIPAA. I am currently trying to implement an EMR system in a small practice. I am trying to convince the parties involved that it is necessary...

Published Tue, Jun 22 2010 2:40 PM by EMR and HIPAA

HHS Says Certified EHR Available in Fall 2010

Well, it always seems to happen when I go out of town on vacation that HHS finally decides to go to work and make some announcements. The final rule for the Temporary EHR certification rule is out and will be published to the Federal Register on June...

Published Mon, Jun 21 2010 3:05 PM by EMR and HIPAA

Drummond Group’s View of EHR Temporary Certification Program Final Rule

If anybody was doubting that Drummond Group was ready to be a player in the EHR certification rule, I think this blog post should make them think twice. You can tell from the tone of the post that Drummond Group had been waiting for HHS to issue the final...

Published Mon, Jun 21 2010 11:36 AM by EMR and EHR

EMR on Twitter

I imagine that many of my readers use Twitter to find EMR information. Twitter is an interesting beast. It takes a little getting used to, but can be used in a whole number of ways. However, what people don’t realize is that you don’t have...

Published Mon, Jun 21 2010 12:56 AM by EMR and HIPAA

Meaning of KLAS Results

I’ve had this post in the hopper since HIMSS back in early March. Unfortunately, it got lost in my other 200 or so draft posts that I work from for future posts. We’ll see if people think I should have left the idea in my drafts or not. During...

Published Fri, Jun 18 2010 3:59 PM by EMR and HIPAA