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

This week health care organizations were startled and not a little concerned to learn of the ONC's unprecedented action with regards to a California health software company.  The agency is decertifying electronic health records systems which initially met ONC requirements for certification. 

Via Modern Healthcare:

For the first time, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS has revoked certifications for two electronic health-record systems, raising troubling questions about how physicians and hospitals should react if the government nixes a system they're already using.

Federal officials require that doctors and hospitals use certified EHR systems in order to receive federal money to defray the cost of converting to EHRs. But on Thursday, the ONC said it decided to revoke certifications for two products on the market after anonymous complaints were lodged about the systems.

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HHS has announced a long-awaited omnibus final rule that implements a number of provisions of the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as the "Stimulus Bill," to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

We will update the blog with more analysis of the final rule, but, in the meantime, you can find the press release here. You can see a copy of the rule via Federal Register here.

Via HHS Press Release:

The final rule also reduces burden by streamlining individuals’ ability to authorize the use of their health information for research purposes. The rule makes it easier for parents and others to give permission to share proof of a child’s immunization with a school and gives covered entities and business associates up to one year after the 180-day compliance date to modify contracts to comply with the rule.

The final omnibus rule is based on statutory changes under the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) which clarifies that genetic information is protected under the HIPAA Privacy Rule and prohibits most health plans from using or disclosing genetic information for underwriting purposes.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will postpone the start of HIPAA Transaction Rules compliance enforcement for 90 days, according to a recent announcement.

See CMS press release here. Via CMS website:

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) announced that to reduce the potential of significant disruption to the health care industry, it will not initiate enforcement action until March 31, 2013, with respect to HIPAA covered entities (including health plans, health care providers, and clearinghouses, as applicable) that are not in compliance with the operating rules adopted for the following transactions as required by the Affordable Care Act: eligibility for a health plan and health care claim status. Notwithstanding OESS’ discretionary application of its enforcement authority, the compliance date for using the operating rules remains January 1, 2013.

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In a sign that HHS is serious about small data breaches, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and The Hospice of North Idaho reached a settlement agreement to resolve allegations of a 2010 breach involving 441 patient records. OCR Director Leon Rodriguez reminded the industry that every covered entity, regardless of size, must implement the privacy and security safeguards - including, e.g., encryption of protected health information on mobile devices - required under HIPAA, as amended pursuant to the HITECH Act.

This settlement comes at the same time as the OCR rolls out its new educational initiative aimed at securing protected data on mobile devices. You can learn more about this initiative here.

Via HHS Press Release:

The Hospice of North Idaho (HONI) has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) $50,000 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule.  This is the first settlement involving a breach of unprotected electronic protected health information (ePHI) affecting fewer than 500 individuals.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) began its investigation after HONI reported to HHS that an unencrypted laptop computer containing the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 441 patients had been stolen in June 2010.  Laptops containing ePHI are regularly used by the organization as part of their field work.  Over the course of the investigation, OCR discovered that HONI had not conducted a risk analysis to safeguard ePHI.  Further, HONI did not have in place policies or procedures to address mobile device security as required by the HIPAA Security Rule.  Since the June 2010 theft, HONI has taken extensive additional steps to improve their HIPAA Privacy and Security compliance program.

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The HHS Inspector General this week reported the results of its recent investigation to “verify the accuracy of professionals' and hospitals' self-reported meaningful-use information, as well as eligibility and payment amounts.”   The investigation reviewed payments issued from May through December 2011, a period during which approximately $1.7 billion was distributed to almost  28,000 recipients.  The Inspector General’s office concluded that Medicare needs to improve its review process.

Link to report here.

Via Modern Healthcare:

The CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS need to tighten up their oversight of the Medicare EHR incentive payment program, according to HHS' inspector general's office.
 
The watchdog office, headed by Inspector General Daniel Levinson, offered a couple of recommendations for the agencies in its report, "Early Assessment Finds That CMS Faces Obstacles in Overseeing the Medicare EHR Incentive Program" (PDF). The report is based on audits of EHR incentive payment attestations, reviews of internal CMS and ONC documents about the program and interviews with CMS personnel. The inspector general's office did not focus this time on the Medicaid portions of the program, although a previous report, issued in July 2011, did, focusing on 13 state-run Medicaid EHR incentive programs. The inspector general's office also is conducting "a series of audits of Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payments" to "verify the accuracy of professionals' and hospitals' self-reported meaningful-use information, as well as eligibility and payment amounts. No time frame for those audits was included in the report.

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The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is passing management of the Nationwide Health Information Network to a coalition of public and private health care organizations.

Via Modern Healthcare:

Following last month's announcement that "now is not the time" for formal regulation of a proposed network of health information exchanges, HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology said it is transitioning control of that network—known as the Nationwide Health Information Network—to a public-private partnership known as the eHealth Exchange.

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Health education materials provided to health care consumers until now have commonly assumed a fairly high level of “health literacy” – a level which, research has shown, makes the materials inaccessible to about 77 million people.  HHS’ new program addressing this issue begins with the development of a system to rate health information as efforts are made to improve the quality of these materials.

Via Modern Healthcare:

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is developing a rating system for the growing amount of health information directed at patients.
 
The agency's Health Information Rating System, discussed in a Federal Register posting, will focus especially on patient data provided by electronic health records.

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Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates (MEEI) will be paying HHS $1.5 million in installments over three years for a 2010 incident.  It is worth noting that OCR also reached a $1.5 million settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) earlier this year for a breach involving over a million patient records on stolen hard drives.  The MEEI data breach, on the other hand,  involved only 3,621 patient records.

Regardless of OCR's exact motives for such a high fine for such a significantly smaller scale breach, it is clear that OCR takes compliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules very seriously, especially in cases where patient data is stored on portable devices. It is also important to keep in mind that, as we pointed out after the BCBST breach, the $1.5 million settlement amount may well be exceeded by the costs and expenses associated with notification and credit monitoring expenses, as well as investigating and correcting this breach by MEEI.

Via Modern Healthcare:

HHS' Office for Civil Rights announced that Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and its affiliated physician group, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates, agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a HIPAA security-rule violation case.

The $1.5 million settlement with Boston-based Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates, collectively known as MEEI, is part of a resolution agreement (PDF) with the Office for Civil Rights. MEEI's alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's security rule stem from the reported 2010 theft of a laptop computer storing 3,621 patient records, according to HHS.

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State and federal privacy laws rigorously restrict sharing of mental health and other highly sensitive patient records.  A technique called “data tagging” may be key in facilitating health care providers’ compliance with these requirements.

Via Modern Healthcare:

Using off-the-shelf content standards and messaging protocols, the Veterans Affairs Department and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of HHS have successfully demonstrated how to electronically tag mental health and other highly sensitive clinical records to help providers comply with stringent state and federal privacy laws limiting the sharing of those records without patient consent.

Development of the electronic patient-consent management system came in response to the VA's and SAMHSA's own needs to protect the privacy of patients under two federal medical record privacy laws that are more robust than the privacy rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

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National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari has announced there is no cap on how much individual providers may receive in meaningful use incentive payouts, as long as they meet the requirements for the EHR incentive payments program.  According to the ONC, almost seven billion of the approximately twenty billion dollars in incentives allocated under the HITECH Act has already been distributed.

Via Healthcare IT News:

WASHINGTON – There are no set appropriations for how much the federal government can spend on rewarding providers who adopt and use electronic health records under the Medicare and Medicaid meaningful use EHR incentive program, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD.

"Whoever qualifies, gets paid; there's no hard cap," said Mostashari, who gave a keynote at the Annual Policy Summit for the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) on Wednesday.

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In preparation for the launching of ONC's permanent EHR system testing and certification program, part of the EHR incentive payment initiative, ONC has authorized five groups as permanent EHR certifiers.

Via Modern Healthcare:

Even though the new regime for testing and certifying electronic health-record systems under the federal EHR incentive program won't take effect until October—and testing against newly released criteria might not begin until year's end—federal authorities have given five organizations the OK to certify software for that program.

HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has authorized the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, the Drummond Group, ICSA Labs, InfoGard Laboratories and Orion Register to serve as certification bodies under the EHR incentive payment program, according to ONC spokesman Peter Ashkenaz. The program was established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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The ONC’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO) has published a "Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information” intended to help healthcare practitioners and their staffs better understand the roles of privacy and security in the meaningful use of electronic health records.

Via Healthcare IT News:

Earlier this spring Healthcare IT News reported the results of a study from HIMSS Analytics and Kroll that showed security breaches are still widespread in healthcare – despite increased attention paid to patient privacy.

The ‘HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data,’ suggested that, despite increasingly stringent regulatory activity with regard to reporting and auditing procedures, most providers were prioritizing compliance with the rules over actually bolstering their own organizations' security protocols.

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On April 17, 2012, HHS announced that its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) settled a HIPAA violation case against a surgery practice in Arizona, for $100,000 and a Corrective Action Plan (CAP), which requires implementation of policies and procedures to prevent such HIPAA violations and breaches in the future.

Via HHS Press Release:

The incident giving rise to OCR’s investigation was a report that the physician practice was posting clinical and surgical appointments for its patients on an Internet-based calendar that was publicly accessible. On further investigation, OCR found that Phoenix Cardiac Surgery had implemented few policies and procedures to comply with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, and had limited safeguards in place to protect patients’ electronic protected health information (ePHI).

'This case is significant because it highlights a multi-year, continuing failure on the part of this provider to comply with the requirements of the Privacy and Security Rules,' said Leon Rodriguez, director of OCR. 'We hope that health care providers pay careful attention to this resolution agreement and understand that the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules have been in place for many years, and OCR expects full compliance no matter the size of a covered entity.'

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On February 24, 2012, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) issued proposed rules regarding Stage 2 of Meaningful Use. The proposed rules include the criteria for demonstrating Stage 2 Meaningful Use, and address the penalties for failure to achieve Meaningful Use by 2015. HHS noted the progress made in the last few years, but also recognized the challenges facing the industry, and pushed back the attestation for Stage 2 to 2014. Via HHS Press Release:

In a November 2011 'We Can’t Wait' announcement, the Department outlined plans to provide an additional year for providers who attested to meaningful use in 2011. Under today’s proposed rule, stage 1 has been extended an additional year, allowing providers to attest to stage 2 in 2014, instead of in 2013. The proposed rule announced by ONC identifies standards and criteria for the certification of EHR technology, so eligible professionals and hospitals can be sure that the systems they adopt are capable of performing the required functions to demonstrate either stage of meaningful use that would be in effect starting in 2014.

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HHS announced today that the government intends to make it easier for healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records (EHRs).  As part of this initiative, HHS decided to extend the deadline for meeting Stage 2 of Meaningful Use until 2014. Via HHS press release:

Under the current requirements, eligible doctors and hospitals that begin participating in the Medicare EHR (electronic health record) Incentive Programs this year would have to meet new standards for the program in 2013. If they did not participate in the program until 2012, they could wait to meet these new standards until 2014 and still be eligible for the same incentive payment. To encourage faster adoption, the Secretary announced that HHS intends to allow doctors and hospitals to adopt health IT this year, without meeting the new standards until 2014.

HHS also trumpeted the results of a CDC survey which found that more than half of U.S. physicians plan to take advantage of the EHR incentive program, and that the rate of EHR adoption doubled between 2008 and 2011, from 17% to 34% among physicians.

Of course, HHS did not comment on how low those numbers are. The fact remains that about two-thirds of U.S. physicians have not adopted electronic health records, and continue to use, in Secretary's words, the same technology as Hippocrates. The Obama administration is relying heavily on Regional Extension Centers and training efforts in order to aid healthcare enterprises in adopting EHRs.

We will update this post with links to any relevant regulations if and/or when HHS publishes them in the Federal Register.

"We Can't Wait: Obama Administration takes new steps to encourage doctors and hospitals to use health information technology to lower costs, improve quality, create jobs," HHS press release (November 30, 2011).

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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.

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HHS released the first numbers regarding its Meaningful Use incentives program, established by the HITECH Act of 2009. Unsurprisingly, most eligible professionals and hospitals receiving funds this year qualified for incentive payments under Medicaid, rather than Medicare, because Medicare has a higher threshold for receiving such payments. Medicare requires the eligible professional or hospital to achieve and demonstrate meaningful use, while Medicaid mandates only adoption, implementation or upgrade of existing systems. 

Nevertheless, the extent of the disparity was somewhat surprising: only about 6% of eligible hospitals and 3% of eligible professionals qualified for meaningful use incentives under Medicare.  Via Modern Healthcare:

So far, Medicaid program payments for hospitals, physicians and other eligible professionals that have adopted, implemented or upgraded to a certified EHR system have totaled $389 million. Only $264 million has been paid under the Medicare program, which has a higher eligibility threshold, requiring providers to demonstrate that they are meaningfully using their certified EHR system.

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A survey by Veriphyr, a provider of identity and access intelligence solutions, found that insiders were responsible for over 60% of data breaches of protected health information (PHI). Specifically, 35% of the PHI breaches were due to insiders' snooping into medical records of fellow employees, and 27% due to improper access to records of their friends and relatives.

Over 70% of surveyed entities, which included hospitals and other heathcare providers, reported suffering one or more breaches within the last 12 months. Veriphyr CEO estimated that data breaches cost healthcare organizations almost $6 billion annually, but found that an overwhelming majority of privacy and compliance officers within the surveyed group (79%) felt that they lacked "adequate controls to detect PHI breaches in a timely fashion."

It is worth noting that 45% of breaches in the survey were caused by loss or theft of medical records and/or equipment holding such records. We have recently seen HHS impose a $1 million fine on Massachusetts General Hospital in a case where, it seems, records were lost by an employee due to a simple mistake and with no malice. UCLA Health System also paid a high price for its employees' snooping into medical records of celebrities.

While it is difficult to anticipate or avoid all possible human error, certain best practices - including Board and executive-level support for privacy initiatives, staff training and updated privacy and security policies and procedures, will go a long way to help your organization protect itself from a disastrous and costly data breach.

"Insiders responsible for majority of privacy breaches, survey finds," Healthcare IT News (August 30, 2011).

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The HIT Policy Committee, which advises the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in the Department of Health and Human Services, voted 12-5 to approve a significant delay in requiring providers to meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use until 2014.  If finalized by CMS, such delay would be a welcome relief to those providers who qualified for Stage 1 Meaningful Use in 2011 (and therefore would have only a few months to commence Stage 2 Meaningful Use under the current rule).

Via Government Health IT:

The delay is among the stage 2 recommendations that the Health IT Policy Committee approved at its meeting June 8 by an overwhelming vote of 12 to 5.

The original 2013 timeframe does not give vendors enough time to design, develop, and test new functionality and providers to deploy it and report measures for one year, said Dr. Paul Tang, vice chair of the Health IT Policy Committee and chair of its meaningful use work group.

“The only group that would be affected is the early entrants who qualify for stage 1 in 2011 who get put into a bit of predicament in an unintended way,” he said. Tang is also chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

As a result, stage 1 demonstration and attestation would continue through 2013; stage 2 would start in 2014 and stage 3 in 2015. With the revised timing, providers will still receive the same payments as originally planned. Instead of 2013, however, early entrants will have to wait to attest and receive payments for stage 2 in 2014.

You can find and download the Meaningful Use workgroup's recommendations by clicking here.

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HHS's own Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a scathing report regarding pervasive breaches in privacy and security of patient data. OIG specifically called out the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), charged with enforcement of HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, for failing to investigate and punish the vast majority of violators.

The audit tested seven hospitals' compliance with HIPAA in seven different states, and found 151 vulnerabilities in the systems and controls intended to cover e-PHI, 124 of which were categorized as "high-impact" (i.e., ones which may result in costly losses, injury or death.)  Violations included unencrypted wireless connections, easy passwords, and even a taped-over door lock on a room used for data storage. Via Modern Healthcare:

The audits of the seven hospitals revealed weaknesses in hospital IT defenses of electronic protected health information, or ePHI, ranging from the fact that several hospitals still were using obsolete and vulnerable encryption protocols to the fact that all seven had vulnerable access controls in which “Outsiders or employees at some hospitals could have accessed, and in one hospital did access, systems and beneficiaries' personal data and performed unauthorized acts without the hospitals' knowledge.”

“These vulnerabilities placed the confidentiality, integrity and availability of ePHI at risk,” the auditors said. The individual hospital audit reports were not disclosed “because the reports contained restricted, sensitive information that may be exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act,” according to the report.

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According to Healthcareinfosecurity.com, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is still working on the final rule regarding the updates to HIPAA and the related HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules mandated by the HITECH Act. Susan McAndrew, deputy director for health information privacy at OCR, stated at a conference in Washington, DC, that such changes will be contained in one omnibus regulation and is expected to be published in a matter of months, if not weeks.

Such omnibus regulation will cover:

• HITECH Act-mandated modifications to the HIPAA privacy, security and enforcement rules. These changes, for example, formalize higher penalties for HIPAA violations and make it clear that business associates must comply with HIPAA. Last December, HHS had indicated in its semi-annual regulatory agenda that the final HIPAA modifications, many of which were issued in preliminary form last year, would be completed by March.
   
• The breach notification rule. An interim final version is already in effect. OCR yanked a proposed final version of the rule last year for further consideration. Some observers speculated that the office may be reconsidering the controversial "harm standard" in the interim final version of the rule, which enables organizations to conduct a risk assessment to determine whether a security incident represents a significant risk of harm and thus merits reporting.
   
• Privacy provisions under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. These provisions will formalize that using genetic information for insurance underwriting purposes is a privacy violation as well as a non-discrimination violation, McAndrew said.

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Earlier today, HHS has released the highly anticipated proposed rule on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The rules will guide healthcare providers in setting up exchanges of healthcare data to improve care and reduce costs, as mandated under the Patient Protection and Accountable Care Act of 2010.

HHS will host a call today, March 31, 2011 on the new regulations, expected to be released prior to the call. The call will take place a noon EDT today and can be accessed by calling 800-475-8413 Code: HHS.

You can find a copy of the proposed rule by clicking here.

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Cignet Health, a Maryland health plan and a HIPAA covered entity, has been fined $4.3 million for failing to produce health records upon request to 41 patients, and for failing to cooperate with OCR with the agency's investigation.  This is the very first civil money penalty (CMP) issued by HHS under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Via HHS Press Release:

In a Notice of Proposed Determination issued Oct. 20, 2010, OCR found that Cignet violated 41 patients’ rights by denying them access to their medical records when requested between September 2008 and October 2009. These patients individually filed complaints with OCR, initiating investigations of each complaint. The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires that a covered entity provide a patient with a copy of their medical records within 30 (and no later than 60) days of the patient’s request. The CMP for these violations is $1.3 million.

During the investigations, Cignet refused to respond to OCR’s demands to produce the records. Additionally, Cignet failed to cooperate with OCR’s investigations of the complaints and produce the records in response to OCR’s subpoena. OCR filed a petition to enforce its subpoena in United States District Court and obtained a default judgment against Cignet on March 30, 2010. On April 7, 2010, Cignet produced the medical records to OCR, but otherwise made no efforts to resolve the complaints through informal means.

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Post & Schell, in collaboration with Kroll Fraud Solutions, presented a free webinar examining the crucial changes and updates to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules included in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued by the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on July 8, 2010. Post & Schell's Steve Fox and Vadim Schick highlighted the key provisions in the NPRM, including:

• New restrictions on use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) for marketing, fundraising, and other commercial purposes
• Providing patients with e-copies of their PHI
• Extension of HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules to business associates
• Effect of new rules on business associate agreements

In addition, our guest presenter for this webinar, Alex Ricardo, CIPP of Kroll Fraud Solutions, discussed the practical implications of this new set of regulations on covered entities and business associates, including:

• Assessing an organization's policies, procedures and practices for compliance with the HIPAA Rules and these updates
• Reviewing current contractual agreements and relationships with business associates and their subcontractors
• Training staff of the organization
• Breach preparedness and breach response

You can view or download the slides from this presentation by clicking here.

For more information, contact Vadim Schick at vschick@postschell.com or 202-661-6945.

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The Rite Aid Corporation, the third largest pharmacy chain in the United States, reached a major settlement with both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and HHS's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) regarding charges that Rite Aid violated federal privacy and security laws and regulations by failing to keep its customers' and employees' data safe. 

Rite Aid employees were reported to discard prescriptions and pill bottles containing sensitive patient data into the dumpsters behind various Rite Aid pharmacies, which were easily accessible to the public.  Such practices violate the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which requires covered entities to safeguard the privacy of patient information, even when such information is being destroyed.  Rite Aid's actions may also violate the company's own promises to their customers regarding keeping their health information private and secure (this broken promise being the basis for FTC's charges).

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On July 13, 2010, CMS issued the final rule defining "meaningful use" and establishing the parameters and requirements for eligible professionals, hospitals and other providers to receive incentive payments provided under the HITECH Act for widespread adoption of electronic health records.  According to CMS, the key changes included in the final rule (from the meaningful use NPRM published in the Federal Register on January 13, 2010) include:

• Greater flexibility with respect to eligible professionals and hospitals in meeting and reporting certain objectives for demonstrating meaningful use. The final rule divides the objectives into a “core” group of required objectives and a “menu set” of procedures from which providers may choose any five to defer in 2011-2012. This gives providers latitude to pick their own path toward full EHR implementation and meaningful use.
• An objective of providing condition-specific patient education resources for both EPs and eligible hospitals and the objective of recording advance directives for eligible hospitals, in line with recommendations from the Health Information Technology Policy Committee.
• A definition of a hospital-based EP as one who performs substantially all of his or her services in an inpatient hospital setting or emergency room only, which conforms to the Continuing Extension Act of 2010
• CAHs within the definition of acute care hospital for the purpose of incentive program eligibility under Medicaid.

You can view the PDF of the final rule on Meaningful Use by clicking here.

You can learn more about it from the HHS press release by clicking here.  Also, the New England Journal of Medicine published an excellent summary by Dr. Blumenthal of the changes included in the final rule; you can find this article by clicking here.

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On July 7, 2010, HHS issued a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) regarding the changes to the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Enforcement Rules, as provided in the HITECH Act, in order "to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information and to improve the workability and effectiveness of the HIPAA Rules."  Via HHS Press Release:

The proposed modifications to the HIPAA Rules include provisions extending the applicability of certain of the Privacy and Security Rules’ requirements to the business associates of covered entities, establishing new limitations on the use and disclosure of protected health information for marketing and fundraising purposes, prohibiting the sale of protected health information, and expanding individuals’ rights to access their information and to obtain restrictions on certain disclosures of protected health information to health plans. In addition, the proposed rule adopts provisions designed to strengthen and expand HIPAA’s enforcement provisions.

You can view the NPRM by clicking here.

"Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Implement HITECH Act Modifications," HHS Press Release (July 7, 2010).

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• HHS's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) filed a notice in the Federal Register lifting a requirement preventing OCR from posting names of sole practitioners who suffer breaches of patient data without first obtaining consent from such practitioners.  Pursuant to the HITECH Act, any covered entity reporting a breach affecting over 500 individuals must report such breach to HHS, and HHS will post a notice of such breach on its web site.  At the same time, HHS did not post names of individual physician practices (e.g., sole practitioners) without such physicians' consent because they deemed the name of the physician to be protected under the Privacy Act of 1974. Instead, HHS listed such breaches under "private practice."  However, OCR announced on April 16, 2010, that "it will begin posting on its breach notification web site the names of entities they consider "individuals" regardless of whether or not those entities give consent." According to HealthLeaders Media, the rule will become effective after the comment period closes (about May 23, 2010).

• Government Health IT reports that OCR will issue more privacy and security rules mandated by the HITECH Act in May 2010, including rules regarding business associate liability; new limitations on the sale of protected health information, marketing, and fundraising communications; and stronger individual rights to access electronic medical records and restrict the disclosure of certain information.  According to HHS, "OCR continues work on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding these provisions. Although the effective date (February 17, 2010) for many of these HITECH Act provisions has passed, the NPRM and the final rule that follows will provide specific information regarding the expected date of compliance and enforcement of these new requirements."

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• A group of 37 U.S. Senators sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius expressing concern regarding the current definition of meaningful use.  The senators urged the Secretary to "allow providers to 'temporarily defer a limited set of IT goals' without otherwise changing the ultimate timeline or requirements of the program."  The senators also sought to change the eligibility determination based on Medicare provider numbers, considering many healthcare providers have multiple medical campuses under one such Medicare number.  According to Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), such changes would "improve the guidelines HHS has set in way that will encourage widespread use of basic, functional IT tools and improve patient care.”

• HHS released over $267 million from the stimulus funds to help 28 non-profit Regional Extension Centers (RECs).  This latest award brought the total of stimulus-funded RECs to 60, and is expected to support 100,000 primary care and hospitals within 2 years.  According to Secretary Sebelius, these 28 awards "represent [HHS's] ongoing commitment to make sure that health providers have the necessary support within their communities to maximize the use of health IT to improve the care they provide to their patients."  

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In a much-anticipated move, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Health and Human Services has issued an update regarding delays of certain HITECH provisions, while confirming enforcement of others.  Via OCR press release:

OCR will implement important privacy and security provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act through notice and comment rulemaking, as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. These provisions include: business associate liability; new limitations on the sale of protected health information, marketing, and fundraising communications; and stronger individual rights to access electronic medical records and restrict the disclosure of certain information. OCR continues work on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding these provisions. Although the effective date (February 17, 2010) for many of these HITECH Act provisions has passed, the NPRM and the final rule that follows will provide specific information regarding the expected date of compliance and enforcement of these new requirements.

However, interim final rules implementing HITECH Act provisions in two areas have already been issued and are currently in effect: enforcement and breach notification. New civil money penalty amounts apply to HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule violations occurring after February 17, 2009. Covered entities and business associates must comply now with breach notification obligations for breaches that are discovered on or after September 23, 2009. OCR announced previously that it would use its enforcement discretion not to impose fiscal sanctions with regard to breaches discovered before February 22, 2010. Since that date has passed, OCR will enforce the Breach Notification Interim Final Rule, including with the possible imposition of sanctions, as it does with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule requirements.

You can find about more here.

"HITECH Act Rulemaking and Implementation Update," OCR Press Release (March 18, 2010).

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Pursuant to the HITECH Act, on February 17, 2010, business associates of covered entities became subject to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, including provisions regarding implementation of various safeguards to secure protected health information.  As Steve Fox pointed out in a recent report on the subject by the Pittsburgh Business Journal, it is highly unlikely that most companies are ready to comply with these dramatic changes.

However, according to Hunton & Williams's privacy blog, Adam Greene of the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) stated at an ABA conference on February 18, 2010, that OCR will delay enforcement of this provision of the HITECH Act until the relevant regulations are finalized.  OCR itself did not publish a press release on the subject, and we were unable to reach Mr. Greene for comment.

Regardless of OCR's intent to enforce compliance, the business associate provisions in the HITECH Act went into effect last week.  We would strongly encourage all covered entities and business associates to take all necessary actions to comply with the new law.

"Privacy policies over electronic health records expand reach," Pittsburgh Business Journal (February 19, 2010).

"HHS Delays Enforcement of HITECH Act Business Associate Provisions," Privacy & Information Security Law Blog (February 19, 2010).

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Pursuant to the HITECH Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released interim final regulations updating enforcement rules for violations of HIPAA.  As reported in Healthcare IT News:

Prior to the HITECH Act, the penalty could be no more than $100 for each violation or $25,000 for all identical violations of the same provision.

A healthcare provider, health plan or clearinghouse could also bar the secretary's imposition of a civil money penalty by demonstrating that it did not know that it violated the HIPAA rules.

Section 13410(d) of the HITECH Act strengthened the enforcement by establishing tiered ranges of increasing minimum penalty amounts, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million for all violations of an identical provision. A covered entity can no longer bar the imposition of a civil money penalty for an unknown violation unless it corrects the violation within 30 days of discovery.

The interim final rule with request for comments, published last week, conforms the HIPAA enforcement regulations to the revisions made by the HITECH Act. This rule will become effective on Nov. 30. HHS will consider all comments received by Dec. 29.

You can find the full text of the rule is here.

"HIPAA violators could face fines up to $1.5M," Healthcare IT News (November 2, 2009).

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Via HHS e-mail update:

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is pleased to announce the availability of materials that are of immediate interest and use to stakeholders and potential applicants for the Health Information Technology Extension Program: Regional Centers Cooperative Agreement Program, and that are new or updated since the August 27, 2009 technical assistance telephone and web conference.

REVISED – Preliminary Application Template (Attachment I to the Funding Opportunity Announcement):  As discussed on the August 27th technical assistance public conference, the suggested template for applicants’ use in compiling and presenting the information required for the Preliminary Application has been updated to include the complete requirements established in the funding opportunity announcement and is now available from www.grants.gov and the Extension Program section of ONC’s website at http://healthit.hhs.gov/extensionprogram.

NEW – A complete transcript of the August 27th technical assistance conference is available for download from the Extension Program section of ONC’s website.  Please visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/extensionprogram to access detailed information about the conference, including the transcript and the presentation slides used during the call.

NEW/REVISED – Program-specific Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are now available on the Extension Program section of ONC’s website.  New FAQs are posted frequently, so potential applicants and other interested parties are encouraged to visit often.  Please visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/extensionprogram then scroll down and click on “Frequently Asked Questions”.

On the HIT Extension Program site, you can find the Funding Opportunity Announcement / Application Instructions document,  as well as a large FAQ section and the "Facts-At-A-Glance" summary. 

You can find the August 27th, 2009 presentation (PPT) here, and the transcript of that same presentation here.

"Health Information Technology Extension Program: Regional Centers Cooperative Agreement Program Update," HHS e-mail update (September 3, 2009).

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On August 19, 2009, pursuant to the HITECH Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the interim final regulations regarding breach notification requirements for health care providers and other entities covered by HIPAA. 

According to the HHS press release:

The regulations, developed by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), require health care providers and other HIPAA covered entities to promptly notify affected individuals of a breach, as well as the HHS Secretary and the media in cases where a breach affects more than 500 individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals will be reported to the HHS Secretary on an annual basis. The regulations also require business associates of covered entities to notify the covered entity of breaches at or by the business associate.

You can find the text of the regulation here.

Stay tuned for more analysis of this important set of regulations on this blog. The interim final regulations are effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register and include a 60-day public comment period. 

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Via Government Health IT:

The federal Health IT Policy Committee today endorsed recommendations that would leave the Certification Commission for Health IT in the short term as the sole organization authorized to certify health IT systems that qualified for funding under the economic stimulus plan. More certifying organizations would be added later.

Certification of electronic health record systems that met federal criteria for “meaningful use” of health IT could start as early as October, members of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health IT Policy Committee said at the August 14th meeting.

Under the plan, CCHIT would provide a preliminary stamp of approval that health IT systems were HHS-qualified or certified until a final meaningful use regulation is published at the end of the year, said Marc Probst, chief information office of Intermountain Healthcare and co-chairman of the Committee’s certification work group.

Preliminary certification is meant to give providers and vendors enough certainty to proceed with planning, designing and purchasing systems in 2010. The HHS certification-qualification would mean that a provider purchasing the systems would be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments under the stimulus law beginning in 2011.

"CCHIT will be sole health IT certifier, for now," Government Health IT (August 14, 2009).

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