Healthy good

HITECH Final Regulations Update: Coming Soon!

<body readability="0">Susan McAndrew, deputy director for health information privacy at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) indicated this week that various final regulations modifying the HIPAA privacy and security rules required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) will be issued soon. Health lawyers have been waiting on these regulations to better understand the full impact of the HITECH changes to HIPAA, including whether the "harm standard" will remain a part of the Interim Final Rule on breach notification.According to a Health Information Security News article, McAndrew made this announcement this week while speaking at the 2011 NIST HIPAA Conference, Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security, held in Washington.The article also indicated that a separate NPRM will be issued announcing the approach OCR plans to take regarding the accounting for disclosure modifications under the HITECH Act. The HITECH Act modified the traditional rule regarding those types of uses and disclosures that must be accounted for by health care providers and covered entities. Under the traditional rule -- health care providers did not have to provide an accounting of disclosure for uses and disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations. However, the modification by the HITECH Act now requires health care providers who utilize an electronic health record system (EHR)to provide, upon request, an accounting of disclosure of all uses and disclosures including those for treatment, payment, and health care operations which occurred within the last three year period. Of further interest will be how the NPRM suggests how business associates who obtain PHI from health care providers must also track and maintain a list of uses and disclosures for accounting of disclosure requests.</body> <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HealthCareBlogLaw/~3/2uXPQIzOwr4/hitech-final-regulations-update-coming.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

HITECH Final Regulations Update: Coming Soon!

Susan McAndrew, deputy director for health information privacy at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) indicated this week that various final ...

West Virginia PEIA: Innovative Steps to Improve Long Term Health of West Virginia

<body readability="0">This past week the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) announced a creative and proactive health initiative to improve the health of West Virginians and move toward keeping future health care costs down for state and public school employees and ultimately for West Virginia taxpayer. Charleston Gazette's Phil Kabler reports on the initiative in "PEIA insurees can offset premiums increase."The Improve Your Score initiative is a part of PEIA's Pathways to Wellness. PEIA announced that state and public school employees will have no health care premium increase this year if they comply with two requirements.The two requirements: Undergo a four-step wellness screening to measure waist circumference, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose. Completion of the screening provides a $10-a-month premium discount.Submit an affidavit verifying they have filed an advanced directive for end-of-life care, sometimes called a "living will." That provides an additional $4-a-month discount.Wonderful to see West Virginia, often more known nationally for unhealthy news, taking a proactive approach to improving West Virginians health by promoting a wellness activity and encouraging end of life care planning. Both initiatives will help to curb the long term impact on our state's health care cost problems and help West Virginia's become more active in understanding and managing their (un)healthy problems. </body> <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HealthCareBlogLaw/~3/MVO1jpgQOIQ/west-virginia-peia-innovative-steps-to.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

West Virginia PEIA: Innovative Steps to Improve Long Term Health of West Virginia

This past week the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) announced a creative and proactive health initiative to improve t...

WVDHHR Transfers OHFLAC Staff and Operations to OIG

According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), the West Virginia Office of Health Facility Licensure and C...

OCR Imposes $4.3M Penalty for Violation of HIPAA/HITECH Privacy Rule

<body readability="0">UNTIL TODAY, many health care providers questioned whether HHS and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) would ever issue any significant penalties for violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. However, will OCR ever be able to collect the penalties.Today, HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a civil money penalty (CMP) of $4.3 million against Cignet Health of Prince George's County, MD for violating the HIPAA Privacy Rule. This is the first ever civil money penalty issued by OCR for a violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. It is significant not only because it is the first - but also because of the size of the penalty and the basis for the violation.OCR issued a Notice of Final Determination on February 4, 2011, outlining the procedure for payment of the $4.3 million civil money penalty. The Notice of Final Determination also indicates that Cignet failed to request a hearing on the matter or reach settlement with OCR. Prior to the issuance of the final notice, OCR had issued a Notice of Proposed Determination on October 20, 2010, which details the basis for the penalty, details the findings of fact, grounds for violation of HIPAA, and calculation of the penalty amount.The Notice of Proposed Determination indicates that Cignet violated HIPAA by failing to provide individuals access to their health information under 45 CFR 164.524 and failed to cooperate with an investigation under 45 CFR 160.310(b). The Notice states: <blockquote readability="9">1. Failure to Provide Access (45 C.F.R. § 164.524). Cignet failed to provide 41 individuals listed in Attachment A timely access to obtain a copy of the protected health information about them in the designated record sets (medical records) maintained by Cignet. These failures constitute violations of 45 C.F.R. § 164.524. Cignet's failure to provide each individual with access constitutes a separate violation of 45 C.F.R. § 164.524, and each day that the violation continued (that is, from the date specified in column 5 of Attachment A until April 7,2010) counts as a separate violation of 45 C.F.R. § 164.524.2. Failure to Cooperate with an Investigation (45 C.F.R. § I60.310(b)). Cignet failed to cooperate with OCR's investigation of 27 complaints regarding Cignet's noncompliance described in paragraph 1 above. These failures to cooperate with an investigation constitute violations of 45 C.F.R. § 160.310(b). Cignet's failure to cooperate with OCR's investigation of each complaint constitutes a separate violation of 45 C.F.R. § 160.310(b), and each day that the violation continued (that is, from the date specified in column 7 of Attachment A until April 7, 2010) counts as a separate violation of 45 C.F.R. § 160.310(b). Each violation of 45 C.F.R. § 160.310(b) was due to Cignet's willful neglect of its obligation to comply with 45 C.F.R. § 160.310(b). Willful neglect means the conscious, intentional failure or reckless indifference to the obligation to comply with the administrative simplification provision violated. See 45 C.F.R. § 160.401.</blockquote>The press release issued by HHS points out that the HIPAA Privacy Rule requires that health care providers must provide a patient with access and/or copy of their health information within 30 days (and no later than 60) days after the patient requests such information. Further, the press release indicates that covered entities and business associates must uphold their responsibility to provide patients with access to their own health information.Read the HHS Press Release and OCR Press Release. More details via the OCR's Resolution Agreement page. For more background on Cignet Health check out David Harlow's post at HealthBlawg, HIPAA CMP's: What's the point?</body> <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HealthCareBlogLaw/~3/son-j0GGM7g/ocr-imposes-43m-penalty-for-violation.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

OCR Imposes $4.3M Penalty for Violation of HIPAA/HITECH Privacy Rule

UNTIL TODAY, many health care providers questioned whether HHS and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) would ever issue any significant penalt...

WVCLE: Health Care Law 2011 Seminar

<body readability="0">The West Virginia Continuing Legal Education Section of WVU College of Law will be sponsoring Health Care Law 2011 Seminar on May 20, 2011, in Charleston, West Virginia at WVU Medical Center - CAMC.The Health Care Law 2011 Seminar will cover a variety of topics of interest to West Virginia health care attorneys. Topics include: Medical Mapractice Update, Protecting Medicare's Interest Under Section 111 and Mandatory Reporting Requirments, Risk Management Topics for Hospitals, Development and Update on ACOs, HIPAA/HITECH Update and Anatomy of a Health Care Data Breach, Stark and Fraud Abuse Update, and Lawyers and Law Firms as Business Associates.I will be speaking on the changes to HIPAA under HITECH. The title for my presentation is "Anatomy of a Breach: Practical Tools to Handle a Breach and HIPAA/HITECH Updates."Learn more about the seminar and how to register here.</body> <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HealthCareBlogLaw/~3/uiOqaSR5cYI/wvcle-health-care-law-2011-seminar.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

WVCLE: Health Care Law 2011 Seminar

The West Virginia Continuing Legal Education Section of WVU College of Law will be sponsoring Health Care Law 2011 Seminar on May 20, 2011,...