HITECH Act and HHS: A full plate of deadlines

Robert Kolodner, the national coordinator for health information technology in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently spoke to attendees at the 2009 HIMSS Conference about the changes and deadlines that have come out of the HITECH Act. Note: Title XIII of Division A and Title IV of Division B of the American Recovery [...]

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HIT Policy Committee Appointments Made

In the beginning of March, we wrote about The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act’s (HITECH Act) provisions within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The HITECT Act establishes additional government and agency involvement in setting policy, standards, specifications, and criteria for Health Information Technology (HRT) and Electronic Health [...]

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Free Training on new Health Information Technology Provisions

Washington-based Health IT Certification is offering a complimentary online course on the Health Information Technology (HIT) provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The 69-page course is designed for those who need to quickly come up to speed on the law and how it affects HIT. The online training module covers; New privacy and security requirements New [...]

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A Health Records Czar?

Previous, we touched on the new security breach notifications introduced through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). https://enclavesecurit.wpengine.com/blogs/kellitarala/2009/03/01/hitech-act-and-security-breach-notifications/.  In this post, we will discuss the goals for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Government/Agency Leadership Infrastructure:   A Health Records Czar? Currently, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government’s [...]

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HITECH Act and Security Breach Notifications

The federal stimulus package law , otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), has a number of measures related to health information technology (HIT) and incentives to adopt electronic health record (EHR) systems.  The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act’s (HITECH Act) provisions (within the ARRA) expand [...]

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On Demand Health Records in Emergency Rooms

How many times have medical efforts been delayed or just incomplete because the emergency room personnel did not have access to patients’ medical records? I recently read about an exciting (and scary) initiative in Wisconsin to provide emergency room clinicians with access to patient health records via a health information exchange. Wisconsin Health Information Exchange [...]

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Bailout for Information Security?

George Hulme at Information Week opines on President-Elect Obama and HHS Secretary Daschle proposal for a health data infrastructure. Hulme articulates the fears of many info sec professionals: “Do you see that? Hospitals interconnected on the Internet. That’s a long-winded way to spell RISK. Because, when you airdrop a crate of technology on a segment [...]

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