Comments on: HIT Amendments Expected in Senate Economic Stimulus Bill http://www.nuckleslaw.com/software-negotiations-expert/hit-amendments-expected-in-senate-economic-stimulus-bill/ Buyer-Side Secrets Revealed Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:56:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jana Aagaard http://www.nuckleslaw.com/software-negotiations-expert/hit-amendments-expected-in-senate-economic-stimulus-bill/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Jana Aagaard Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:09:21 +0000 http://www.nuckleslaw.com/software-negotiations-expert/?p=133#comment-34 IT vendors may want to look at one specific requirement of the stimulus package privacy provisions and think about the impact it will have on the IT industry. Section 4405(c) of the House bill and 13405(c) of the Senate bill eliminates the "treatment, payment, and health care operations" exemption from the requirements for providing an accounting of disclosures by a covered entity to a patient if the covered entity uses an electronic health record (EHR). In addition, HR1 reduces the chronological scope of the accounting from 6 to 3 years (a big step in the right direction). Do EHR products today have the capacity to generate and store for 3 years the following information on every disclosure made by a physician or hospital? the date of the disclosure; the name of the person who received the PHI and the address, if known; a brief description of what PHI was disclosed; a brief statement of the purpose of the disclosure. Can EHRs actually capture the distinctions between a disclosure of PHI from a hospital to a health plan, for example, for treatment purposes as opposed to quality assurance purposes (health care operations)? Is it realistic for a physician or hospital to store the requisite data on every patient for 3 years? These are questions that covered entity providers are currently wrestling with, because few to no IT EHR products have such capabilities. IT vendors may want to look at one specific requirement of the stimulus package privacy provisions and think about the impact it will have on the IT industry. Section 4405(c) of the House bill and 13405(c) of the Senate bill eliminates the “treatment, payment, and health care operations” exemption from the requirements for providing an accounting of disclosures by a covered entity to a patient if the covered entity uses an electronic health record (EHR). In addition, HR1 reduces the chronological scope of the accounting from 6 to 3 years (a big step in the right direction).

Do EHR products today have the capacity to generate and store for 3 years the following information on every disclosure made by a physician or hospital? the date of the disclosure; the name of the person who received the PHI and the address, if known; a brief description of what PHI was disclosed; a brief statement of the purpose of the disclosure.

Can EHRs actually capture the distinctions between a disclosure of PHI from a hospital to a health plan, for example, for treatment purposes as opposed to quality assurance purposes (health care operations)? Is it realistic for a physician or hospital to store the requisite data on every patient for 3 years? These are questions that covered entity providers are currently wrestling with, because few to no IT EHR products have such capabilities.

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