Guidance from the Office for Civil Rights on your right to access your health records
From the HHS Office for Civil Rights website: Ask your doctor. You have the right to see and get copies of your health information - PDF. In most cases, you can get a copy the way you want it, such as by e-mail. While your doctor normally has up to 30 days to provide you a copy of your information, your doctor often can provide the information much sooner than that. If your doctor offers a web portal, you may be able to easily view and download your health information whenever you want.
Official guidance from the Office for Civil Rights
As Hurricane Florence makes landfall, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and its federal partners remain in close coordination to help ensure that emergency officials effectively address the needs of at-risk populations as part of disaster response. If you believe that a person or organization covered by the Privacy and Security Rules (a "covered entity") violated your health information privacy rights or otherwise violated the Privacy or Security Rules, you may file a complaint with OCR. For additional information about how to file a complaint, visit OCR's web page on filing complaints at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/index.html.
Journal of the American Medical Association with an updated article from the BMJ
In the article titled, "Can Patients Make Recordings of Medical Encounters?" from the JAMA Network authors Elwyn, Barr, and Castaldo discuss some of the broader legalities of making a recording while visiting your doctor.
Making a recording that you can add to your personal health record can be a great way of maintaining documentation and accountability for your care, as well as assist you and your family in remembering instructions given to you by your care provider.
Understanding the legalities can help ensure this is a positive experience for both you and your doctor and will allow you to make recordings that are admissible in court if needed.
An Office of the National Coordinator published web guide
This newly published web guide from ONC titled, "The Guide to Getting & Using Your Health Records: The steps, tips, and tools you’ll need to get, check, and use your health record" helps to instruct consumers on how to get their health record from healthcare providers, their rights to those records, and some specific ways in which to get a hold of that information.
An article from Health IT Buzz
Have you ever wondered what a health information technology (health IT) developer’s share of meaningful use eligible hospitals looked like compared to its peers? How about the same for eligible clinicians under the Quality Payment Program (QPP)? Well, look no further. Today, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published two […]
The post Visualized: Mashing up 2015 Edition Certification and Progress Attestation Requirements appeared first on Health IT Buzz.
I woke up to a flood of news about ransomware today. By virtue of being down here in Australia, a lot happens in business hours around the world while we're sleeping but conversely, that's given me some time to collate information whilst everyone else is taking a break. The WannaCry incident is both new and scary in some ways and more of the same old stuff in others. Here's what I know and what the masses out there need to understand about this and indeed about ransomware in general.
Guidance from the U.S. Department of Human Services
From the HHS Ransomware Fact Sheet:
A recent U.S. Government interagency report indicates that, on average, there have been 4,000 daily ransomware attacks since early 2016 (a 300% increase over the 1,000 daily ransomware attacks reported in 2015).1 Ransomware exploits human and technical weaknesses to gain access to an organization’s technical infrastructure in order to deny the organization access to its own data by encrypting that data.
But were afraid to ask...
From the Troy Hunt article:
"The indictment also suggest that the hackers, in most cases, did not employ particularly sophisticated methods to gain initial entry into the corporate networks. The papers show that in most cases, the breach was made via SQL injection flaws -- a threat that has been thoroughly documented and understood for well over than a decade."
A Health Resources & Services Administration YouTube video
HRSA’s mission is to improve health and achieve health equity through access to quality services, a skilled health workforce, and innovative programs. This video provides an overview of how to utilize the Data by Geography tool that helps outline HRSA’s investments nationwide or by a geographic area, including: HHS region, state, county, congressional district, and ZIP Code.
A resource from the US Office for Civil Rights
From the OCR website:
We are experiencing an explosion of technology using data about the health of individuals in innovative ways to improve health outcomes. Building privacy and security protections into technology products enhances their value by providing some assurance to users that the information is safe and secure and will be used and disclosed only as approved or expected. Such protections are sometimes required by federal and state laws, including the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.
Health app rankings by clinicians, researchers, & patients
From the Ranked Health website:
RANKED Health is a project run by the Hacking Medicine Institute (HMi), a non-profit organization spun out of MIT’s Hacking Medicine program. This project is designed to review and rank healthcare focused applications, providing independent, unbiased and accurate information to accelerate patient and provider adoption of clinically proven and high-quality digital health solutions. In addition to identifying best-in-class healthcare applications for better health monitoring and disease management, RANKED Health also helps uncover unsafe and ineffective apps on the market.
Find out which federal laws you need to follow
From the Federal Trade Commission website:
Does your mobile app collect, create, or share consumer information? Does it diagnose or treat a disease or health condition? Then this tool will help you figure out which – and it may be more than one – federal laws apply. It’s not meant to be legal advice about all of your compliance obligations, but it will give you a snapshot of a few important laws and regulations from three federal agencies.
Sample Business Associate Agreement Provisions provided by the Office of Civil Rights
From the OCR website:
A “business associate” is a person or entity, other than a member of the workforce of a covered entity, who performs functions or activities on behalf of, or provides certain services to, a covered entity that involve access by the business associate to protected health information. A “business associate” also is a subcontractor that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information on behalf of another business associate.
National Quality Forum HIT Safety Report
From the NQF website:
"In order to address the rapidly-evolving area of HIT and its intersection with quality and outcomes, NQF initiated a project to develop a set of recommendations around the measurement of HIT-related safety issues."
The fiscal impact of data breach
I get a lot of people popping up with data breaches for Have I been pwned (HIBP). There’s an interesting story in that itself actually, one I must get around to writing in the future as folks come from all sorts of different backgrounds and offer up data they’ve come across in various locations. Recently someone sent me a list of various data breaches they’d obtained.
Important changes to how Medicare pays those who give care to Medicare beneficiaries
From the CMS YouTube page: During this MLN Connects® video, CMS subject matter experts provide an overview of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which makes three important changes to how Medicare pays those who give care to Medicare beneficiaries:
- Ending the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula that determines Medicare payments for services
- Making a new framework to reward health care providers for giving better care
- Combining our existing quality reporting programs into one new system
PO Intro to DGIS Performance ReportsIntroduction to Discretionary Grant Information System (DGIS) Performance Reports help video for project officers.
Visit www.mchb.hrsa.gov.
MCHB DGIS Dashboards for POsHelp video on the Discretionary Grant Information System (DGIS) Internal Dashboards for MCHB.
Visit www.mchb.hrsa.gov.
ACHDNC Meeting December 1, 2020Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, December 1, 2020.
Visit www.hrsa.gov.
Medication DisposalLearn about how to properly dispose of expired and unwanted medication!
Visit poisonhelp.hrsa.gov
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention TipsLearn about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and how to prevent CO poisonings in your home.
Visit poisonhelp.hrsa.gov
Poison Experts Available 24/7When you call Poison Help, you are speaking to a medical expert who can offer free, personalized assistance 24/7.
Visit poisonhelp.hrsa.gov
What are emerging strategies and how can I submit mine?HRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) is developing the Best Practices Compilation to serve as a central location where Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program providers can share innovative practices with other providers to improve outcomes for their clients along the HIV care continuum. The online compilation will be housed on TargetHIV.org. In this video, learn how to submit your innovative practice that may meet HRSA HAB's criteria for "emerging strategies".
What is the HRSA RWHAP Best Practices CompilationHRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau is developing the Best Practices Compilation to serve as a central location where Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program providers can share innovative practices with other providers to improve outcomes for their clients along the HIV care continuum. The online compilation will be housed on TargetHIV.org.
FTCA Site Visit Overview: Guidelines and Logistics for Virtual HRSA/BPHC FTCA Site VisitsFTCA Site Visits are a critical part of the oversight and compliance process. This video provides an overview of modifications taken to adapt the on-site FTCA site visit processes to a virtual site visit format.
Visit https://bphc.hrsa.gov/ftca
Provider Relief FundHHS/HRSA is distributing $175 billion Provider Relief Fund (PRF) in support payments to providers responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. PRF payments offer financial support for lost revenues and expenses attributable to COVID-19. For example, this could help cover the increased demand for personal protective equipment; other sanitation supplies, or maintain staff.
For more information, visit hhs.gov/providerrelief.
HRSA Behavioral Health GrantsHealth care workers are more important than ever before. We can help you support the growing workforce. We fund health professionals through grants to organizations like academic institutions and community based colleges and training programs. We also support faculty salaries and training stipends for students in health care fields of study, as well as loan repayment options and resources.
To learn more, visit bhw.hrsa.gov/grants
EnRICH Webinar: Succeeding in Research: Developing Your Conceptual ModelMCHB EnRICH Webinar from September 10, 2020
Visit www.hrsa.gov.
HRSA's Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program 30th AnniversaryVisit hab.hrsa.gov.
August is National Minority Donor Awareness MonthU.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams talks about the health disparities minorities face and how anyone of any ethnicity can offer hope to those in need by registering as an organ, eye, and tissue donor.
For more information about organ donation or to register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor in your state, visit organdonor.gov or donaciondeorganos.gov.
Learn more about National Minority Donor Awareness Month: https://www.organdonor.gov/awareness/events.html
Sign up online as an organ donor: https://www.organdonor.gov/register.html