Health Information Technology Posts

HIPAA Compliance FAQs

Monday, April 8th, 2013

QandACommon Questions we’ve received from clients about HIPAA Compliance changes.

Q: If you have a deceased patient, does HIPAA still apply?

A: Yes, the medical record remains confidential regardless of the

patient’s status.

Q: What are the rules for emailing or texting protected health information (PHI) to outside vendors?

A: It must be under a Business Associates Agreeement and it must have an encrypted secure line. Standard text messaging is not HIPAA compliant.

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Quality Assurance Fee Survey Update Due 12/30/2011

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

You may have received the email below from DHCS requiring your hospital to submit a new Quality Assurance Fee (QAF) Survey by 12/30/11. One of the reasons DHCS is collecting this information is to determine how revenue and expense from the QAF program (aka the provider fee program) are recorded on the 2010 OSHPD annual reports. If QAF data were reported incorrectly, it could skew Medi-Cal DSH payments. DHCS is requiring all hospitals to apply, whether they receive DSH or not, and whether they are a private or public hospital.
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EHR and What It Means for Clinics

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

The Health Information for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) portion of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides incentives and regulations for the use of electronic health records (EHR) by all Medicare enrolled practitioners, whether a single physician or a multiple site clinic group. (more…)

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Posted in Community Clinics, Enrollment, Health Clinics, Health Information Technology | No Comments »

Spotlight on Med/Surg

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Rich Parsons, Vice President / Principal

Director of Management and Operations Consulting

While it can be argued, we believe that the Medical Surgical (Med/Surg) units are the most important department in an acute care hospital. They house the majority of patients, are the most operationally intensive, and generally provide the most revenue. It is on the Med/Surg units that inpatients generally form their patient satisfaction opinions, which gives a hospital its reputation for quality care. (more…)

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Posted in Benchmarking Tool, Health Information Technology, Hospital Management, Productivity Management | No Comments »

Entitlement Funds

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Medicare & Medi-Cal Incentive Payments for Health Information Technology

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) are allocating $46 billion towards EHR Adoption Incentives for hospitals, physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, FQHCs and RHCs. The caveat here is that providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of a “certified EHR.” A “certified EHR” is a Health Information Technology (HIT) system that can capture demographic and clinical information about patients, enable physician order-entry and exchange health information with other providers or institutions. As CMS develops the concept of “meaningful use” of EHR, a broader explanation would include: (more…)

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