Compliance & Legal
Some healthcare organizations use homegrown tracking technologies to avoid third-party disclosures of protected information, but all have to understand if their practices comply with applicable privacy laws, says Betsy Hodge, partner at Akerman.
OCR investigated Saint Joseph’s Medical Center for alleged violations of HIPAA when it disclosed three patients’ PHI to the Associated Press without written authorization.
HHS is proposing expensive new disincentives to prevent information blocking. There are significant details to be aware of, especially around a list of enumerated exceptions – and HCOs must work quickly to understand them, data privacy experts say.
In a complaint filed in federal court in Texas, the hospital group says enforcement of the Office for Civil Rights' regs on pixel tracking tools would disrupt the "balance that HIPAA and its regulations strike between privacy and information-sharing."
While the agreement is not an admission of liability, Doctors’ Management Services has agreed to pay a penalty of $100,000 and be subject to HIPAA-compliance monitoring by OCR for three years.
The CMS-based disincentives outlined in the proposed rule from ONC published Monday would penalize hospitals under the Promoting Interoperability Program, eligible clinicians under MIPS and ACO participants under the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
AI & ML Intelligence
The White House plan for "safe, secure and trustworthy" artificial intelligence wants the Department of Health and Human Services to have a mechanism in place to collect reports of "harms or unsafe healthcare practices," and act to remedy them.
Interoperability agreements between public health systems, along with centralized consent management for sharing healthcare and other data, are must-haves for advancing health equity, says Daniel Stein, president of Stewards of Change Institute.
Its partnership with Freshpaint seeks to support hospitals, health systems and health plans by configuring their patient engagement ecosystems to support compliance with HIPAA privacy rules and regulations.
Dr. Ben Zaniello, chief medical officer of PointClickCare, explains three pathways to consider to achieve whole person care and shares his personal experiences engaging SDOH on post-acute care coordination.