OIG Advisory Opinion Approves Referral Payments Under Electronic Health Record (EHR) System

By John Mulhollan on February 6, 2012 Posted in HIPAA/HITECH, Medical Privacy

In a significant development impacting the wider electronic health record (EHR) community, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) on December 7 issued an Advisory Opinion (AO 11-18) approving an EHR vendor’s proposed transaction fee structure for charging customers that use the vendor’s new patient referral ordering system. Although the Advisory Opinion applies only to … Continue Reading

HHS Proposes Standards on Metadata for Electronic Health Information Exchanges

By Lynn Sessions on August 12, 2011 Posted in HIPAA/HITECH, Medical Privacy

On August 4, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) on metadata standards to support a nationwide electronic health information exchange. Section 3001 of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provides for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health … Continue Reading

HHS Inspector General Reports Highlight IT Security Gaps in Health Care

By John Mulhollan on May 26, 2011 Posted in HIPAA/HITECH, Medical Privacy

On May 16, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two reports critical of the government’s efforts to build and enforce a federal information security framework for protecting individuals’ electronic protected health information (ePHI). Of particular interest to health care providers and health plans, these reports … Continue Reading