On August 17, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its final rule requiring vendors of “personal health records” to notify consumers when the security of their electronic health information is breached. On August 19, 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its interim final rule requiring health care providers, health plans, and other entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to notify individuals when their health information is breached. These rules were issued pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). HITECH required FTC and HHS to collaborate on development of the breach notification rules. The FTC’s press release and a link to its Breach Notification Rule is available here. The HHS press release and Breach Notification Rule is available here. HHS published the Breach Notification Rule in the Federal Register on August 24, 2009.
HITECH Law
Kentucky Governor establishes Office of Electronic Health Information
On August 14, 2009, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear signed an Executive Order creating Kentucky’s Office of Electronic Health Information. This new Office will be the conduit for development of health information exchanges and the stimulus grants available to states under the HITECH Act. The Secretary of Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services is vested with authority to appoint the Executive Director for the Office.
The press release announcing the creation of the office states that the Kentucky E-Health Network Board, which is administratively attached to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, will also serve as an integral resource to the Office as it moves forward. CHFS Secretary Janie Miller said, “The Governor’s action will allow the Commonwealth to be in a position to apply for federal stimulus funds for planning and implementation of health information exchange to support infrastructure and build resource capacity, particularly for underserved communities.” The Executive Order’s effective date is August 16, 2009.
HIT Policy Committee Workgroup Releases Second Draft of “Meaningful Use”
On Thursday, July 16, 2009, the HIT Policy Committee presented its revised recommendation on the “meaningful use” definition. At the end of this meeting, the HIT Policy Committee forwarded its recommendation on the “meaningful use” definition to the Office of National Coordinator per the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH Act”). The revised meaningful use matrix, 2011 Draft Quality Measures and other materials presented or discussed during the MU meeting on July 16, 2009 are available on the HIT Policy Committee webpage.
IOM Releases Top 100 Priorities for Comparative Effectiveness Research
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 placed a mandate on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to recommend national priorities for research questions to be addressed by comparative effectiveness research (CER) and supported by the ARRA stimulus funds. Pursuant to this mandate, on June 30, 2009, the IOM released a report, titled Initial National Priorities for Comparative Effective Research (Report). As described by the IOM, the Report “establishes a working definition of CER, develops a priority list of research topics to be undertaken with ARRA funding using broad stakeholder input, and identifies the necessary requirements to support a robust and sustainable CER enterprise.”
ARRA’s Competitive State HIT Grants and the Small Physician Practice
Many small physician practices may be relying on health information technology (HIT) loans from their state to adopt electronic health records (EHRs) in their practices. Before a physician can seek such a loan, the state must have such loans available. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides grants to states to make such EHR loans available to health care providers. However, states must competitively bid for the ARRA HIT grant money to be made available for such loans.
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