The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) recently launched a Privacy & Security Mobile Device project. Today I received an email about it. Privacy and Security Mobile Device Good Practices Project Launched ONC’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO), in working with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), recently launched [...]
We live in the world of mental health billing. When you live in that world, it is very easy to forget that not everyone else lives where you do. Some folks have never heard of what we do. Others just visit our world when they must. As you know, there are massive changes happening in [...]
On September 22, 2011, I attended a webinar sponsored by the Business Operations for Behavioral Health Collaborative, a SAMHSA-funded joint venture of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, the National Association of Community Health Centers, NIATx, and the State Associations of Addictions Services (SAAS). The topic of the webinar was Health Information Exchange and [...]
Are you a Jeopardy fan? If you are, I am sure you know that in January of 2011, IBM’s supercomputer, Watson beat two of Jeopardy’s all time money winners, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Watson is an Artificial Intelligence that can understand questions posed to it in natural ‘human’ language. WellPoint, a BlueCross collaboration, is [...]
Last week I asked you if you were using a Personal Health Record (PHR). I got only one response…from a college friend who is a technical writer. John is involved with a PHR company called medkaz. This company believes that all electronic medical records should be driven by and owned by the patient. Accordingly, they have developed [...]
I am sure many of you remember the reports dating back to 2005 that celebrity patient files were being viewed by casual lookers…employees who had access to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Health System electronic medical record (EMR) but who had no legitimate reason to view those records. Well, the Department of [...]
Last week I attended a continuing education workshop for psychologists at my local chapter of the Florida Psychological Association. Psychological Records: Basic Requirements and the (Forced?) Choice of EMRs was presented by Robert J. Porter, Ph.D., president of the Tampa Bay chapter and treasurer of Florida Psychological Association. Dr. Porter’s presentation was attended by about 30 psychologists and [...]
Once a month, on average, our technical support specialists are confronted with a customer whose database has become corrupted because of some hardware issue and who has no usable backup. After last week’s adventure, I decided I would again write about backup. Then, last night, I saw a discussion on a Psychology and Technology listserv that included [...]
Many of our customers include Case Management as part of the mix of services provided to clients. Among the seriously mentally ill (SMI) population, Case Management has become an essential service helping individuals gain the most from the services they receive. Helping the client take their medication as prescribed, assessing their current symptom status, intervening [...]
The move to electronic medical records and the Federal stimulus funds to assist eligible providers in making that change have resulted in massive and rapid development of products and solutions to help providers move quickly. There are over 300 EMR products, some for hospitals, some for doctor’s offices. I have even been shown a small, [...]
My extreme concern about data protection and privacy have made me wonder how effective the drive to electronic medical records (EMRs) will be, particularly in the behavioral health arena. My clearest recollections from the first day of my psychology internship at a community mental health center are all of the instructions related to protecting patient [...]
This morning I saw a friend’s Facebook link to Kathleen Parker’s Washington Post column, With Tyler Clementi’s Death, Let’s Try Friending Decency. On Friday, I had seen an email from the Unitarian Universalist Association, Church of the Larger Fellowship, pointing me to a blog post by the senior minister, Rev. Meg Riley entitled How Can [...]
I am sure some of you remember that the HITECH portion of the stimulus bill (ARRA) included attempts to strengthen the protection of psychotherapy notes in the new Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). In fact, the Secretary of HHS was instructed by Congress to study whether the protections for psychotherapy notes granted by HIPAA should be extended [...]
On Monday of this week, Seth asked me if I had a topic for my current blog. As I had none at hand, he pointed me to last week’s episode of the podcast/NPR show, Science Friday. Seth is a regular subscriber to this series and I listen when I find the time. That effort is [...]
Almost two months passed between my post last week and the last one before that. The combination of family illnesses followed by vacation and recovery from travel put me in a position of being so far behind in the reading I usually do that I could not possibly catch up. My personal inclination was to [...]
The HITECH section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) added privacy and security requirements that providers of health care services must follow in handling the Protected Health Information (PHI) of those they treat over and above those provided for in HIPAA. HIPAA allowed PHI to be exchanged for treatment and operations without patient [...]
I have recently noticed several pieces of news that I thought would be of interest to providers of behavioral health services and others. 1. The National Council Public Policy Update of April 8, 2010 pointed out an important change in timely filing requirements for Medicare claims: Requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act makes (sic) [...]
Spring has finally arrived in central Florida. It has become warm enough not to need to wear cool weather clothing but cool enough to keep windows and doors open for most of the day. This is the time of year when I want to be outdoors even though the air is full of pollens. I experience a [...]
For those of you who attend to news about Health Information Technology (HIT) last week was a busy one. The 10th annual meeting of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Atlanta took top billing. One of my favorite bloggers [EMR (EHR) and HIPAA] attended and posted frequently during the conference. John has been writing [...]
On March 2, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced a plan to approve organizations to certify electronic health record software programs. ModernHealthcare.com reported the announcement of this new plan by ONC head, Dr. David Blumenthal, at the big meeting of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) occurring in Atlanta [...]
