Posts Tagged ‘Stimulus Package’

Health care providers, health plans, and other entities covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will soon be required to notify individuals in the event their unsecured personal health information (PHI) is breached. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published an interim final rule with comment period Aug. 24 providing new regulations regarding the HIPAA notice of breach requirements. Read more »

If you’re considering purchasing an electronic medical record (EMR) system, you’re not alone. Plenty of organizations have made the leap before you; so why not learn from their failures and successes? Read more »

Want to know what President Obama’s National Coordinator for Health Information Technology thinks and how what he envisions will affect you and your practice? Check out this interview in Health IT News.

Maryland has adopted its own bill to persuade physicians and facilities to adopt certified electronic health records (EHR), complementing the $20 billion carrot included in the stimulus bill signed in February.

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The AAPC is learning more about how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Barak Obama Tuesday will affect your workplace and your job. Under the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, health care providers will receive financial incentives beginning 2011 for implementing qualified electronic health records systems (EHRs).

Physicians, facilities, and other providers will receive money through Medicare or Medicaid programs for their “meaningful use” of EHRs. Payments are structured to encourage early adoption and penalties discourage procrastination.

“Meaningful use” is not specifically defined in the bill, but it gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) — still to be named — advisory guidance regarding how to determine this. HHS is required to develop and publish universal standards for EHR systems by the end of 2010. EHR vendors will seek certification for meeting these standards, and any provider using a certified EHR system will be eligible for incentive payments. Read more »