Update: On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed into law the "Doc Fix" bill, Public Law 113-93, which extends the deadline for ICD-10 for an additional year. Section 212 of this law prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from adopting ICD-10 code sets prior to October 1, 2015.
Everyone is a-twitter (pun intended) about the ...
By Ann Triebsch and Kathie McDonald-McClure
Following our blog post on December 11, 2013 about Part One of a report from the Office of the Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) about fraud safeguards in electronic health records (EHRs), the OIG recently issued Part Two of its report. Dated January ...
On December 10, 2013, the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health & Human Services (OIG) issued a report finding that hospital implementation of fraud safeguards in electronic health records (EHRs) falls short of the recommended standards. The report carries out one of the OIG's 2013 Work Plan objectives ...
On Friday, November 6, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) announced its proposal to extend the timeline by which eligible healthcare providers must demonstrate a "meaningful use" (MU) of a certified electronic health record (EHR) in ...
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced its new Certified HIT Mark, similar to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. The Certified HIT Mark provides a way for consumers to feel confident at a glance that “the HIT meets all ...
On Friday, May 3, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) jointly hosted a listen and learn webcast about the impact of EHRs on coding and billing. Look for HITECHMcClure on Twitter for comments from the panelists. Materials used during the session ...
The deadline is fast approaching for eligible professionals (“EPs”) to file attestations to receive electronic health record (“EHR") incentives available under Medicare’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (“HITECH Act”).
To receive an EHR incentive payment, EPs, such as physicians ...
On December 7, 2012, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published an interim final rule with comment period to make revisions to the 2014 Edition Electronic Health Record (EHR) and revisions to the EHR Incentive Program. Specifically, this rule will:
On Thursday, October 4, 2012, in a letter to Secretary Sebelius of the United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the United States House GOP called on HHS to suspend incentive payments for the adoption and implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) otherwise authorized under the Health Information Technology for ...
The promised audits have begun for providers receiving electronic health records (EHR) incentives available under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
In order to receive Medicare EHR incentive payments, providers must attest to CMS that they meet Meaningful Use (MU) criteria using certified ...
On Thursday, February 23, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, released a 455-page Proposed Rule specifying the Stage 2 criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today, October 20, 2011, that the use of certified electronic health records (EHRs) will be the highest-weighted quality measure for an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) under the new Medicare Shared Savings Program.
ACOs are designed to encourage primary care doctors ...
On September 6 and 7, 2011, the Kentucky Governor's Office of Electronic Health Information hosted the 4th annual Kentucky eHealth Summit at the METS Center, 3861 Olympic Boulevard, Erlanger, KY 41018 in northern Kentucky.
Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for the United States ...
What do the Physician Quality Reporting Incentives Program (PQRI) and Hospital Inpatient Value Based Purchasing (VBP) Program have in common with the recently released proposed regulation for establishing an Accountable Care Organization (ACO)? Answer: The meaningful use measures established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicare ...
On January 13, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Proposed Rule on the Medicare Hospital Inpatient Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program. The VPB Program is being established per the directive of the Patient Protection and Affordable Access to Care Act of 2010 (PPACA). CMS is to begin making incentive ...
Just to recap where we are today, the U.S. Health & Human Services Department (HHS) Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has authorized three organizations to perform complete EHR and/or EHR module testing and certification under the Temporary Certification Program Rules. Certification means that the EHR or ...
On September 27, 2010, CMS updated its answers and posted a few new ones to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the electronic health record (EHR) incentives available under the HITECH Act's Meaningful Use ("MU") Final Rule. Here is a sampling of answers addressed in the FAQs:
- Registration for Medicare MU incentives is to be available ...
On Thursday, July 22, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held a publicly available teleconference to give an overview of the 800+ page Final Rule on Meaningful Use (MU) under the HITECH Act, as well as an overview of the Final and Proposed Rules on Temporary & Permanent Certification Program and the Final Rule on ...
Update: On December 29, 2010, HHS published in the Federal Register a "Correcting Amendment" to its Final Rule on Meaningful Use, which can be viewed here.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wasted no time in putting the brand new CMS Director to work on July 13, 2010, in announcing the release of two rules under the Health Information Technology ...
On Thursday, July 29, 2010, physicians, physician practice managers, and others interested in learning more about the regulations governing incentives under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act) are invited to a free education session (by Kathie McDonald-McClure) and networking event ...
From the Office of National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC HIT):
"On June 18, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued its temporary certification program final rule, which establishes a way for organizations to become authorized by the National Coordinator to test and certify ...
Update 9/24/2020: In the 10 years since we wrote this article, the DEA received questions and requests for clarification on various issues concerning the implementation and technical requirements for e-prescribing controlled substances. To provide further clarification, this year, the DEA reopened the EPCS Interim Final Rule for ...
On March 2, 2010, the Office of National Coordinator (ONC) issued its proposed rulemaking respecting the certification standards that an eligible health care provider's electronic health record must satisfy in order to qualify for incentives under the Health Information Technology for Clinical and Economic Health Act (HITECH Act), which ...