|
|
HIPAA NEWS Seattle-based Providence Health Agrees on Corrective Action Plan for Potential HIPAA Violations The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has entered into a Resolution Agreement with Seattle-based Providence Health & Services (Providence) to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules. In the agreement, Providence agrees to pay $100,000 and implement a detailed Corrective Action Plan to ensure that it will appropriately safeguard identifiable electronic patient information against theft or loss.
The Privacy and Security Rules are enforced by HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The Privacy and Security Rules require health plans, health care clearinghouses and most health care providers (covered entities) to safeguard the privacy of certain individually identifiable health information and meet additional security standards for patient information maintained in electronic form. The Resolution Agreement relates to Providence’s loss of electronic backup media and laptop computers containing individually identifiable health information in 2005 and 2006. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published guidelines to help smaller physician practices meet the security requirements of HIPAA. The guidelines addressed several topics, including:
• Administrative safeguards (e.g., workforce security, staff training, contingency planning);
• Physical safeguards (e.g., facility access controls, workstation use); and
• Technical safeguards (e.g., access controls, user authentication, data transmission security).
Click HERE to review the guidelines on the CMS website. Below are some links to some of the educational materials:
EHR NEWS Survey: Physician Acceptance of EHRs Grows Half of family physicians responding to a recent survey reported their practice uses or is implementing an electronic health records system, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
That compares with 30% of respondents to AAFP’s 2005 survey, and 10% in the inaugural 2003 survey. The Leawood, Kan.-based association conducted its 2007 survey in April, sending mail to about 4,000 active members and receiving 459 responses.
In 2007, 37% of respondents reported using an EHR with another 13% in the implementation process. Physicians most likely to have a fully implemented EHR are those who have practiced in an urban area for seven or fewer years, do not own their practice and work with at least two other physicians. Other survey results include: 25% of respondents have no plans to implement an EHR; 53% of respondents without electronic records cited cost as the reason, while 42% were concerned with decreased productivity; 60% of respondents implementing or planning to buy an EHR would use an e-mail or secure messaging feature within the application and 49% would be interested in using the EHR for practice-based research; Virtually all respondents implementing or planning to buy an EHR want to use it to manage patient medication and problem lists, display patient summaries and trigger alerts for preventive services.
References: Health Data Management, July 17, 2007: Latest News: Doc Acceptance of EHRs Grows Adler KG, Edsall RL. Electronic Health Records: The 2007 FPM User-Satisfaction Survey. Fam Pract Management, April, 2007; Vol. 14, No. 4 Pg:47-51.
|
|
|