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October 2005 News ArchivesOctober 25, 2005 Hawaii Hospital Loses Patient Data Wilcox Memorial Hospital on Kauai is warning some 130,000 former and current patients about the disappearance of a computer data drive containing client information, reports the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Hospital spokeswoman Lani Yukimura said a backup drive, with files going back 12 years, was found missing on October 5. Yukimura said the data drive does not contain medical information, but has a listing of names, addresses, medical record numbers and Social Security numbers. The "thumb drive," which can be plugged into a computer's USB port, could be read using Adobe Acrobat Reader software and was not encrypted to limit access, she said. Yukimura said the hospital has since adopted new policies to prevent a similar incident. October 25, 2005 Technology CEO Council Pushes E-Health Road Map The Technology CEO Council, a policy advocate group of heads of some of the biggest IT companies in the US, has inserted itself into the debate over a national health information network with several reports that lay out recommendations and a road map for adopting health information management technology, reports Government Health IT. In its main report, the council calls for, among other things, the adoption of interoperable technology and common data standards by the various stakeholders in the debate. It also asks the federal government to drive market-based open standards and best practices in its own programs. October 24, 2005 Health Policy Institute Issues Consumer Guides on State Laws & Medical Privacy Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute is issuing a series of state guides that are designed to help healthcare consumers understand their rights to see, get a copy of, and amend their medical records under a combination of their state laws and the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The literacy level is aimed at the average healthcare consumer. Guides for all 50 states will be posted on the Health Policy Institute's web site October 14, 2005 NCVHS Submits 7th Annual Report on HIPAA to Congress Last month, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS), a public advisory committee to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), submitted its annual report to Congress on the status of the implementation of the HIPAA Administrative Simplification provisions, covering the period January 2004 through April 2005. As described in its report, significant progress occurred on several HIPAA Administrative Simplification standards during the past year. NCVHS concluded, however, that the full economic benefits of Administrative Simplification will only be realized when all of the standards are in place, and implementation activities and resource planning in the industry will be more effective when the entire suite of standards is finalized. NCVHS found a high level of adoption for the healthcare claims transaction standard has been achieved, although this same level has not occurred for standards in eligibility, enrollment, health claim remittance, healthcare claim status and the coordination of benefits. In addition, the delays in promulgation of the regulations for provider and health plan identifiers have slowed the realization of expected benefits by the healthcare industry. NCVHS states congressional support is needed for additional resources to enable HHS to accelerate the promulgation of the remaining HIPAA standards as well as to provide appropriate levels of industry education, which includes efforts to educate the healthcare industry about the Privacy Rule. Read NCVHS' 7th Annual Report on HIPAA. October 14, 2005 Ohio Supreme Court Hears Health Records Case The Ohio Supreme Court tackled what was described as the first case in the nation that addresses whether records that are public under state law can be withheld under the federal HIPAA privacy law. Justices heard arguments Tuesday in an attempt by the Cincinnati Enquirer to obtain documents about lead citations issued by the Cincinnati Health Department. Attorneys for both sides told the justices they agreed the reports are public record. The health department, however, argued that HIPAA forbids the release of such records, because they might identify the names of children tested for lead poisoning. Read the Cincinnati Enquirer's article, "Ohio High Court Hears Records Suit." October 13, 2005 HHS Awards Contract to Measure Health IT Adoption The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded a contract yesterday to the George Washington University and the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Institute for Health Policy to assist in furthering the Health IT Adoption Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to create a 15-member panel of experts to determine the status of electronic health records (EHR) adoption, analyze the effectiveness of policies to accelerate adoption, and measure long-term progress. The first of five annual reports will be published in the fall of 2006 and serve as a baseline. The reports will characterize the EHR adoption gap so that it can be followed over time. October 10, 2005 AHA Survey Finds Hospitals Embracing IT While nine out of 10 hospitals are using or considering using health information technology for clinical uses, most cite cost as a major impediment to broader adoption, especially for small or rural hospitals, according to an American Hospital Association (AHA) survey released last week. While most are still in the beginning stages, the survey shows hospitals are making investments in IT, in large part, to make gains in the safety and quality of patient care. Some of the technologies and systems hospitals are using include bar coding devices, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and electronic health records (EHRs). October 6, 2005 HHS Awards Contracts to Jump-Start Nationwide Health IT Network The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today awarded three contracts totaling $17.5 million to public-private groups that will accelerate the adoption of health IT and the secure portability of health information across the US. Contracts were awarded to the American National Standards Institute to develop a standards harmonization process; the Certification Commission for Health IT to develop criteria and evaluation processes for certifying electronic health records, as well as the health IT infrastructure or network components through which they would share data; and the Research Triangle Institute International to establish the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration. A fourth contract for development of prototypes for a nationwide health information network (NHIN) will be awarded to one or more contractors later this month or in early November, according to Government Computer News. October 6, 2005 New HHS Health IT Standards Group to Meet The American Health Information Community (AHIC), a public-private group of federal and state executives, company CEOs and representatives of the healthcare industry, will be meeting for the first time tomorrow, October 7; the meeting will be open to the public. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt, who will be chairman of the panel, last month named the members of the group that will decide on standards and uses for health IT to enable physicians to exchange medical information. AHIC's work in selecting interoperability standards is designed to advance the implementation of electronic health records, which promise to improve the quality of healthcare, reduce medical errors and cut costs. The new public/private AHIC will not start its standards work from scratch, reports Government Computer News. A federally sponsored body, the Commission for Systemic Interoperability, will provide a document to Congress and the Health and Human Services Department in October to guide AHIC. The commission will then dissolve. Read Government Computer News' article, "Commission sets tone for standards work." October 6, 2005 HHS to Publish E-Prescribing & EHR Self-Referral, Safe Harbor Laws New regulations that support adoption of e-prescribing and electronic health records (EHRs) were announced yesterday by Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will soon issue a final rule containing the “foundation standards” for e-prescribing that all Medicare prescription drug plans must support. A proposed rule by CMS creates exceptions to the “physician self-referral” law. In a parallel action, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced proposed safe harbors for arrangements involving the donation of technology for e-prescribing and EHRs. Read more, including the text of the two proposed rules. October 3, 2005 JCAHO Health IT Advisory Panel to Focus on Improving Processes The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) last week announced the formation of the Healthcare Information Technology Advisory Panel, a body the organization believes is important for care improvement in the future, reports iHealthBeat. JCAHO created the panel in order to contribute to the movement toward a national health care infrastructure. Instead of focusing primarily on specific health IT hardware, software or networks, the panel will complement the work of others and take a different approach by focusing on how health IT affects process improvement.
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over the next two years. Currently, guides for 17 states (CA, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, VA and WI) are available. Healthcare-related organizations are encouraged to link to the guides so that the materials are widely accessible to healthcare consumers. Work on this project is funded by a grant from the National Library of Medicine.