Compliance & Legal

The president-elect made bold campaign promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But even with a Republican-led House and Senate, how quickly can he make that happen?

Electronic health records platforms are leaving doctors exposed by making it hard to demonstrate what they did and why. Some providers are even settling malpractice suits and not because of guilt. Hospitals cannot ignore the issue anymore.

The company is said to be the first in healthcare to achieve this validation, which ensures the payment network has met standards to protect data.

Hospitals and provider organizations now have to manage business associates that might share data or access to it with overseas vendors. Experts say OCR won't pursue foreign companies after a breach. That means all risk remains on HIPAA-covered entities.

Northwell Health replaced its aging email tracker with a system that helps manage compliance, contract review and budget approvals. And it built the new system with existing resources. 

"As I've said many times, one of the great challenges we have is that the 2015 Edition final rule has an enormous scope extending beyond meaningful use with the notion that it can be coupled to every government healthcare IT program," writes John Halamka, MD.  

Eligible hospitals can apply for hardship exceptions for issues related to EHR vendors, infrastructure, natural disasters and more.

The wireless networks of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have "significant" vulnerabilities, according to penetration tests administered by the Office of Inspector General.

More than a dozen medical groups including the American Medical Association, Medical Group Management Association, American College of Surgeons and others, have sent the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on August 22 imploring it to quickly make the proposed 90-day reporting period a final rule.

HHS initiative to re-focus on incidents affecting fewer than 500 patients.