HITECH Act

The Leapfrog Group names 2015 Top Hospitals: 5 things to know

By Shannon Barnet for Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality The Leapfrog Group has recognized 98 hospitals as Top Hospitals on its 2015 list, up from 94 hospitals in 2014 and 90 in 2013. The list recognizes organizations that performed at the highest national levels in quality and safety. All total, more than 1,600 hospitals…

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The Value of Unlocking Unstructured Patient Data

Written by John Smithwick for Healthcare Intelligence Network Getting patients diagnosed correctly and treated appropriately depends on providers gathering both quantitative data, which is typically structured, and qualitative data, which is typically unstructured. When comparing both types of data, it’s more challenging to manage and derive value from unstructured data. Structured data is that which…

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Yelp can help: Rating access to electronic medical records will hold hospitals accountable

By Niam Yaraghi for Brookings While patients may hugely benefit from having access to their own medical records, many hospitals and physicians are still very reluctant to provide patients with a copy of their records. Although taxpayers have partly paid for the majority of hospitals to adopt electronic health records systems, which reduce the cost…

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The forces behind data breaches: A look inside the minds of cybercriminals

By Carrie Pallardy for Health IT & CIO Review Data breaches are costly events – with an average price tag of $3.8 million each according to a Ponemon Institute report – and healthcare is a prime target. The bulk of data breach media coverage focuses on the aftermath – the cost and pursuant lawsuits –…

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CFO Gets Prison Time for HITECH Fraud

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee for Healthcare Info Security Hospital Executive Falsified ‘Meaningful Use’ Attestation A former Texas hospital CFO has been sentenced to 23 months in federal prison for submitting false documents so a medical center could receive payments under the HITECH Act electronic health records financial incentive program. In addition to his prison sentence,…

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UCLA Health Says Hack Exposed Personal Data on 4.5 Million People

by Reuters and Associated Press Found on NBCNews.com University of California (UCLA) Health, which runs four hospitals in the university’s campuses, said its computer systems had been hacked and that data on as many as 4.5 million individuals could have been exposed. UCLA Health said on Friday it was working with the FBI and private…

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Providence worker to serve 2 years for giving medical records to drug dealer

By Tulsi Patil for KTUU.com ANCHORAGE – An Anchorage woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison Monday for violations to medical privacy laws, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler’s office announced in a press release. According to prosecutors, 33-year-old Stacy Laulu was a financial counselor at Providence Hospital in March, 2013 when she was contacted…

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EHRs Increasingly Included in Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Source: iHealthBeat Electronic health records are increasingly being cited in medical malpractice lawsuits, Politico reports. According to a review of data by the Doctors Company, a physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, EHRs were involved in just 1% of a sample of lawsuits that had been closed between 2007 and 2013. However, the frequency of such EHR-related…

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