Electronic Health Records

Doctors and Hospitals May Not Need Patient's Consent to Exchange Electronic Medical Data with Middlemen

Existing rules may suffice for one-to-one data exchanges, panel says

May 19, 2010

Federal Computer Week - Doctors and hospitals that want to exchange patient medical data electronically for treatment purposes may not need additional rules for patients' consent providing certain conditions are met, according to recommendations being considered by a federal advisory committee to the Health and Human Services Department.

The Health IT Policy Committee, which advises HHS, reviewed recommendations today from its Privacy and Security Workgroup. The policy committee is advising HHS on implementing the health IT provisions of the economic stimulus law. Under that law, HHS will distribute more than $17 billion to doctors and hospitals who buy and meaningfully use electronic health records systems.

HHS is considering requirements for meaningful use for 2013 and beyond, including rules for protecting patient privacy during health data exchange.

Policies are needed to deal with patient privacy and consent in information exchange, especially with respect to facilitators, or middlemen, the workgroup recommended. Rules should be set for middleman data access, retention and reuse, as well as security requirements.

However, in cases in which a provider exchanges data on a one-to-one basis with another provider — with or without a facilitator — there should be requirements for encryption, limits on what personally identifiable data is contained in the message, and identification an authentication of individuals in the exchange, the workgroup said.

In that scenario, those protections ought to be enough to ensure privacy and consent, without creating additional consent rules, the workgroup added.

“If strong policies are in place and enforced, we don’t think that the above scenario needs any additional individual consent beyond what is require by current law,” the workgroup said.

HHS to Make Grants for Prescription Monitoring Systems

New program to assist states with systems overseeing controlled drugs

April 22, 2010

Federal Computer Week - The Health and Human Services Department's new grant program to help states establish prescription monitoring programs for controlled substances will make its first awards by September.

The HHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is administering the program created under the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act of 2005.

Thirty-five states have created operational prescription monitoring programs for controlled substances, according to a Federal Register notice on April 14.

HHS wants public input to set the criteria for the program intended to help states establish or improve their prescription drug reporting systems. Enhancements that allow the systems to share information with each other are eligible.

Under the reporting programs, doctors and pharmacists submit information on prescriptions dispensed for controlled substances, which include stimulants, sedatives, depressants and narcotics.

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently issued a notice of proposed rule-making which, if made final, would permit electronic prescribing of controlled substances.

“The administrator believes that the future changes in health information technology and electronic health records will have a significant impact on prescription monitoring programs,” the Federal Register notice states.

HHS Awards $267M for Health IT Regional Centers

Awards bring total to 60 health IT assistance centers nationwide

April 7, 2010

Federal Computer Week - The Health and Human Services’ Department’s giving $267 million to 28 additional health information technology assistance centers will complete a nationwide network of 60 centers along with a central health IT research center, officials said.

HHS on April 6 announced the second round of awards for Health IT Regional Extension Centers, non-profit organizations that provide technical assistance to doctors and hospitals that select and implement electronic record systems.

The program is being funded under the $19 billion in health IT funding approved by Congress in the economic stimulus law. The bulk of that money, about $17 billion, will go directly to doctors and hospitals who buy and "meaningfully use" the digital systems. About $2 billion is going to the technical assistance centers and to state health information exchanges.

The goal of the regional extension centers is to assist smaller providers with implementing the systems and achieving meaningful use. The awards to the 28 centers range from $3 million to $28 million each. Some of the centers will offer services through videoconferencing and other telecommunications services.

The 60 centers nationwide seek to reach 100,000 primary care providers and hospitals in two years.

Two months ago, HHS officials announced $375 million awarded to 32 centers in the first round of awards. All the awardees have an opportunity to apply for two-year supplemental awards that total $25 million.

Supplementing the regional extension centers will be the Health IT Research Center, which will award a series of contracts, according to Yael Harris, director of the division of evaluation in the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The research center is considered part of the regional extension center program, Harris said April 6 at an AFCEA conference.

The contracts to be awarded by the research center include funding for communications and information security, communities of practice, lessons learned, technical solutions, identification management solutions and analysis of barriers to health IT, Harris said.