A new report finds that the number of large-scale health data breaches increased last year, while the number of patients affected by them decreased. The report from California-based IT security audit provider Redspin Inc., titled “Breach Report 2012, Protected Health Information,” looked at 538 breach incidents since August 2009, when the interim breach notification rule under the HITECH Act went into effect;
February 18, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
A February 7th letter signed by the chairwoman and the president/CEO of HIMSS expresses “strong support” for adopting ICD-10 by October 1, 2014. The letter from Willa Fields (Chair, HIMSS Board of Directors) and H. Stephen Lieber (President/CEO, HIMSS), submitted to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebellius and CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner,
February 12, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
Utah’s Department of Health has reported its second data breach within the past year. This incident involved the personal information of approximately 6,000 Medicaid patients.
On January 10th, an employee of third-party contractor Goold Health Systems (which processes Medicaid pharmacy transactions for the state agency) saved Protected Health Information (PHI) onto a portable USB flash drive which was not encrypted.
January 28, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) paid $1.2 billion in Electronic Health Records systems incentive payments in December 2012. A health insurance specialist at CMS’ office of eHealth Standards and Services characterized the figure to the Health Information Technology Policy Committee by stating, “This is our single largest monthly payment by a factor of three.”
January 10, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights announced last week the settlement of potential HIPAA violations stemming from a data breach affecting less than 500 individuals. The Office for Civil Rights noted that this is the first settlement for a breach of this smaller size, though there have been over 60,000 such breaches in less than three years (compared with 525 larger breaches involving 500 or more people).
January 7, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
While hospitals and health systems project a decline in capital expenditure budgets, healthcare IT spending seems to be growing, according to a new survey. Premier’s latest Economic Outlook, which is based on a survey of 617 healthcare executives, shows that 41% of the respondents project their capital spending to increase compared with last year.
December 31, 2012 | By Lawrence G |
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services has awarded a $15 billion contract for the creation of a virtual data center and consolidation of its huge datasets. CMS’ decentralized status makes interoperability difficult at best within the current network of over eighty data centers and data stores, comprising 400 terabytes of Medicare and Medicaid data.
November 26, 2012 | By Lawrence G |
The Department of Health and Human Services has extended the deadline for states to submit detailed applications for their own Health Information Exchanges. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent letters to all state governors last week advising them of the new December 14, 2012 deadline.
The Affordable Care Act mandates that the states must have HIEs (essentially online marketplaces for health insurance shopping) in place by January 2014.
November 13, 2012 | By Lawrence G |
A study by Weil Cornell Medical College researchers found that using Electronic Health Records systems results in significantly higher care quality scores than using paper records for certain health conditions. The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, analyzed care quality data regarding over 74,000 patients from 262 physicians using paper records and 204 physicians using EHRs in 2008.
October 16, 2012 | By Lawrence G |
The multi-agency Medicare Fraud Strike Force charged 91 people for allegedly participating in schemes amounting to almost $430 million in Medicare fraud. The second such major raid by the government in the past few months netted doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals, some of whom were arrested while others surrendered themselves.
Federal,
October 5, 2012 | By Lawrence G |
