No Further Extensions for ICD-10 and MU Stage 2

February 28, 2014April 7, 2014 Margaret Young Levi EHR Certification Standards, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Incentives, Hospital EHR Stimulus, Meaningful Use, Physician EMR Stimulus American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Certified Electronic Health Record, Certified Electronic Health Record Technology, CMS, EHR, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIMSS14, ICD-10, Marilyn Tavenner, Medicare EHR Incentive Programs, Medicare EHR Incentives, MU, Privacy & Security, Stage 2, Stage 2 Meaningful Use, Tavenner

Update: On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed into law the “Doc Fix” bill, Public Law 113-93, which extends the deadline for ICD-10 for an additional year. Section 212 of this law prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from adopting ICD-10 code sets prior to October 1, 2015.

Everyone is a-twitter (pun intended) about the announcement on Thursday, February 27, 2014, from Marilyn Tavenner, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), that the deadline for adoption of ICD-10 will not be extended. Tavenner was the keynote speaker at the HIMSS14 conference, and numerous tweets from HIMSS attendees highlighted her assertion that CMS will stand firm on the October 1, 2014 deadline. All entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) must be prepared to use ICD-10 codes on transactions by this date.

Tavenner also affirmed that the deadlines for Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) will not be extended. Providers who are not meaningful users of Certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology under the Medicare EHR Incentive Programs will face a penalty, in the form of Medicare payment adjustments. These payment adjustments will be applied beginning on January 1, 2015. Continue reading →

MU Deadlines for Eligible Professionals

December 23, 2013March 12, 2014 Margaret Young Levi Electronic Health Records, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Meaningful Use, Physician EMR Stimulus EHR Incentive Program

UPDATE: 2/10/2014. On Friday 2/7/2014, CMS announced an extension until March 31, 2014 for Eligible Professionals to submit their 2013 EHR Meaningful Use (MU) attestation. In addition, Eligible Hospitals that had trouble submitting their 2013 MU attestation may be able to retroactively submit their MU attestation to avoid the 2015 payment adjustment but must contact CMS by March 15, 2014 at 11:59 pm to do so. Note that only the attestation deadline is being moved and not the requirement to meet meaningful use by September 30, 2013 for Eligible Hospitals and by December 31, 2013 for Eligible Professionals in order to avoid the 2015 payment adjustment. (We would provide you a link to the CMS announcement but it currently is not readily available on the CMS EHR Incentive Program website and, in fact, CMS has not yet updated its deadline on its home page for the Program.)

Eligible professionals, such as physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and chiropractors, should be aware of two upcoming dates related to their participation in the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. The reporting period ends December 31, 2013, and the deadline to attest to “meaningful use” ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on February 28, 2014. For additional information about the process of attesting to meaningful use, check out CMS’ Attestation Guide for Medicare EPs .

Lessons Learned from Meaningful Use Audits

December 5, 2013March 12, 2014 Margaret Young Levi Electronic Health Records, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Incentives, Meaningful Use hospital incentives for EHRs, meaningful use audits, meaningful use security risk assessment

HITECH Act meaningful use auditor
By Margaret Levi and Kathie McDonald-McClure

As we previously reported in a blog post on September 24, 2013, an eligible professional, eligible hospital, or critical access hospital receiving an incentive payment for the meaningful use (MU) of electronic health records (EHRs) will likely be subject to a stringent audit from either Medicare or Medicaid. The fact that these MU audits are underway is now fully evident.

We have heard from several sources that CMS auditors are hitting Tennessee and Kentucky hospitals and physician practices and demanding repayment of meaningful use incentive monies if providers cannot fully back up their attestations for Stage 1 compliance in every respect.

Continue reading →

Don’t Forget to Protect your Paper Health Records!

December 2, 2013March 12, 2014 Margaret Young Levi Electronic Health Records, Health Information Technology, Privacy & Security Converting from paper to EHR, HIPAA breach, privacy and security of protected health information

Even as health care providers have moved to convert from paper to electronic health records, it remains just as important to continue to protect paper health information records. While the majority of data breaches involve mobile devices such as laptops and flash drives, a significant number of large data breaches (those affecting 500 or more individuals) Continue reading →

Conducting HIPAA Breach Risk Assessments Using the “LoProCo” Analysis

December 1, 2013March 12, 2014 Margaret Young Levi Federal Law Resources, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Privacy & Security HIPAA breach, HIPAA LoProCo, HIPAA Omnibus Rule, HIPAA risk assessment, HITECH Act, low probability of compromise, Privacy & Security, privacy and security of protected health information, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights

by Margaret Young Levi and Kathie McDonald-McClure

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has a new acronym, “LoProCo,” relating to assessing data breaches under HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 and the HIPAA Omnibus Rule that became effective March 26, 2013.

It is OCR’s position that a breach is Continue reading →

A legal blog about consumer privacy and data security in a high-tech world

Author: Margaret Young Levi