The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It was modified the HHS Secretary’s authority to impose civil money penalties for violations occurring after Feb. 18, 2009. These HITECH Act revisions significantly increase the penalty amounts the Secretary may impose for violations of the HIPAA rules and encourage prompt corrective action.
As a result, doctors and other medical care practitioners are seeking various opportunities for maximizing their efforts to install and implement electronic health records technology to streamline their billing, records management and even patient relationships programs.
According to the HHS Web site, prior to the HITECH Act, the Secretary could not impose a penalty of more than $100 for each violation or $25,000 for all identical violations of the same provision. A covered health care provider, health plan or clearinghouse could also bar the Secretary’s imposition of a civil money penalty by demonstrating that it did not know that it violated the HIPAA rules. Section 13410(d) of the HITECH Act strengthened the civil money penalty plan by establishing tiered ranges of increasing minimum penalty amounts, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million for all violations of an identical provision. A covered entity can no longer bar the imposition of a civil money penalty for an unknown violation unless it corrects the
violation within 30 days of discovery.
More than ever the medical sector needs to jump on board. Getting patients health information stored electronically and ensuring all of HIPPA privacy rules are followed are critical.
“The Department’s implementation of these HITECH Act enforcement provisions will strengthen the HIPAA protections and rights related to an individual’s health information,” said Georgina Verdugo, the director of HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR is responsible for administering and enforcing HIPAA’s privacy, security and breach notification rules.
The HHS has encouraged health care providers, health plans and other health care entities required to comply with HIPAA to ensure that their compliance programs are effectively designed to prevent, detect and quickly correct violations of the HIPAA rules.
Providers can get started on EHR adoption now with the help of financial incentives from the federal government. However, they need to remember that adopting and achieving meaningful use of EHRs takes time. These incentive programs will not always be available and financial penalties are scheduled to take effect in 2015.
The HITECH Act of 2009 authorizes substantial support to help support provider adoption of EHRs. With the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs: Doctors and other eligible professionals can qualify for incentive payments totaling as much as $44,000 through Medicare or $63,750 through Medicaid. Hospitals can qualify for incentive payments totaling some $2 million or more.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has resources in place to help health care providers make informed decisions about adopting and meaningfully using EHRs.
The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs website contains educational resources and fact sheets with information to help eligible professionals and hospitals adopt, implement, and upgrade certified EHR technology and demonstrate meaningful use.
Sixty-two Regional Extension Centers across the nation are prepared to offer customized, on-the-ground assistance, especially to small-practice primary care physicians and small hospitals.
Beacon Communities are identifying and sharing best practices for using EHRs to achieve health care quality improvements.
The State Health Information Exchange Program and Nationwide Health Information Network provide tools, funding, and support for building a national network for health information exchange.
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