Recently, a federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit that an Ohio woman filed claiming that a hospital did not safeguard her EMR (electronic medical records). In an interesting twist, the woman alleged that her husband, who worked at the hospital, was able to access her EMR and share them with a co-worker. This was not just any co-worker. Allegedly, it was a co-worker with whom the husband was having an [...]
A growing number of doctors are declining to participate in the Medicare health program, due in part to disagreements with the program’s rate policies and an ever increasing list of regulations. The current number of doctors refusing to accept Medicare may still be an immaterial figure; however, this growing trend should be cause for alarm. For the first time, the agency administering the Medicare program has released figures documenting this [...]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services yesterday unveiled long awaited changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"). The release is comprised of four final rules combined into a single omnibus rule designed to reduce the impact and number of times certain compliance activities need to be undertaken by regulated entities. Important provisions include: An expansion of HIPAA's scope to apply many HIPAA provisions [...]
