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By: Oscislawski LLC

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Krystyna Monticello
Helen Oscislawski

Latest from Legal Health Information Exchange

On Monday, ONC posted a new Information Blocking Frequently Asked Questions resource!  Here are a few of the highlights from all of the FAQs responded to by ONC: Q:  Are health plans or other payers subject to the information blocking regulation? A:  For purposes of the information blocking regulation in 45 CFR part 171, the term “actor” includes health care providers, health IT developers of certified health IT, and health information networks (HIN) or health information exchanges…
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Interim Final Rule with Comment Period Responds to COVID-19 Pandemic.  Responding to public health threats posed by the coronavirus pandemic, today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) released an interim final rule with comment period that extends the compliance dates and timeframes necessary to meet certain requirements related to information blocking and Conditions and Maintenance of Certification (CoC/MoC) requirements. Released to the public…
ONC’s final rule on Information Blocking implements the 21st Century Cures Act and fleshes out what is and is not a prohibited information blocking practice.  However, not all health care organizations and their vendors are on the hook for complying with this new regulation. The 21st Century Cures Act and the ONC Final Rule define the scope of individuals and organizations – referred to as “Actors” — that are required to comply with Part 171 regulating…
As the November 2nd deadline for compliance with ONC’s Information Blocking Rule nears, many health care providers – which are “Actors” subject to the Rule – are scrambling to reexamine their default settings for sharing various types of data, including lab results. In ONC’s Final Rule preamble, several commenters indicated that providers’ current organizational policies call for practices that delay the release of laboratory results so that the patient’s clinician has an opportunity to review the…
Join me for a pair of 1.5hr Information Blocking Workshops designed to help hospitals work thorough the nitty-gritty details of the Information Blocking Rule!  These workshops will include practical use cases and scenarios aimed at real challenges faced by hospitals looking to comply with these new regulatory standards for access and sharing of electronic health information. Registrants also receive two (2) sample Policies for compliance with the Information Blocking Exceptions, as well as a Discount Code…
OCR releases 5 new HIPAA settlements all at once Heavy focus on behavioral health providers Sends message to health care industry “patients are entitled to timely access to their own medical information” Yesterday, all at once, OCR announced that it has entered into five new Resolution Agreements — each of them stemming from one or more violations of HIPAA’s right of  access afforded to individuals. There are several interesting observations about these new cases that…
At the last hour, CMS extended the deadline for publishing much anticipated changes to the Stark Law. Originally expected for publication this past August, CMS extended the deadline to August 2021, noting that “… we are still working through the complexity of the issues raised by comments received on the proposed rule and therefore we are not able to meet the announced publication target date.”  The OIG’s proposed counterpart rule implementing changes under the…
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WHEN:  Thursday, September 17, 2020 12:00-2:30 p.m. EST. WHERE:  Virtual event on Zoom. Link and access code will be provided upon registration. This event is FREE. NJ CLE Credits Pending Panel One: Balancing Privacy and Public Health Efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic can impact privacy rights of patients, those at risk, and the general population.The first panel will include topics addressing: What are the duties of healthcare providers to report patients’ COVID-19 information? How should governments track…
After over almost four months of no new HIPAA Resolution Agreements or Civil Money Penalties, OCR quietly posted two new HIPAA settlement agreements at the end of July.  At first glance, both appear to be “run-of-the-mill” cases with nothing new to learn with the first one resulting in OCR finding that the covered entity failed to complete a basic Security Risk Analysis and train workforce, and the other involved – yet again – a stolen…
Public comment period to FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule closed August 20, 2020. The CARES Act amendments will require SAMHSA to add Breach Notification provisions to 42 CFR Part 2. Healthcare providers, vendors of PHRs and Part 2 providers and programs will need to keep an eye out for coming regulations which will require updates to Breach Notification P&Ps. Subscribe to HERE to Legal HIE’s compliance library to gain access to sample policies, documents and…