Health IT Law Blog : Health IT Law Blog : Post & Schell: Law Firm : HIT & Electronic Health Records

On October 20, 2011, CMS published the final rule on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or, as it is formally known, the Medicare Shared Savings Program (the "Program"), enacted as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. According to CMS chief Don Berwick, MD, the Program represents an "opportunity to coordinate care among providers," which could "greatly improve the quality of care Medicare beneficiaries receive," and produce substantial savings for the federal government. The Program creates incentives for providers to collaborate in treating an individual patient across care settings, in order to receive a portion of the savings generated from providing such care. 

CMS has substantially relaxed the requirements for ACOs originally provided in the proposed rule. Some of the key changes include (among many others):

• Adding a "one-side" risk model, allowing providers to participate in the program without risking a loss in the event their ACO did not produce savings
• "Preliminary perspective assignment" of Medicare beneficiaries, giving ACOs more control over their Medicare beneficiary population
• Reducing the number of performance measures from 65 to 33
• Eliminating the two percent threshold for being eligible for shared savings

CMS will begin taking applications for the program on January 1, 2012, with start dates of April 1 and July 1, 2012.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Nemours, a children's health system with hospitals in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Florida and New Jersey, reported a massive breach affecting 1.6 million people, including patients, employees, and vendors. Via Health Data Management:

'On September 8, 2011, we learned that a locked tape storage cabinet containing computer backup tapes was missing,' the delivery system said in a notice to patients. 'We immediately began an investigation and now believe the cabinet was removed from our Wilmington facility on or about August 10, 2011, during a remodeling project. To date, we have been unable to locate the storage cabinet. We believe the cabinet contained three unencrypted backup tapes from a computer system we stopped using in 2004. No medical records were on the backup tapes, but they did contain patient billing information, including name, date of birth, insurance information, medical treatment information, and Social Security number.' Some employee payroll data and vendor information, such as direct deposit bank account information, also was on the tapes.

Nemours began encrypting its back up data tapes and moved its rarely-used tapes to a more secure off-site facility. The health system is offering a year's worth of credit-monitoring to affected individuals, which considering the numbers involved in this breach, could be a massive, seven-figure expense.

"Nemours Notifying 1.6 Million Individuals About Breach," Health Data Management (October 18, 2011).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link