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Electronic Health Records Vendor to Pay $155 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations | OPA | Department of Justice

or example, in order to pass certification testing without meeting the certification criteria for standardized drug codes, the company modified its software by “hardcoding” only the drug codes required for testing. In other words, rather than programming the capability to retrieve any drug code from a complete database, ECW simply typed the 16 codes necessary for certification testing directly into its software. ECW’s software also did not accurately record user actions in an audit log and in certain situations did not reliably record diagnostic imaging orders or perform drug interaction checks. In addition, ECW’s software failed to satisfy data portability requirements intended to permit healthcare providers to transfer patient data from ECW’s software to the software of other vendors. As a result of these and other deficiencies in its software, ECW caused the submission of false claims for federal incentive payments based on the use of ECW’s software.

Health care data-sharing rules touch off intense lobbying fight - POLITICO

But many in the industry say they have patients’ best interests at heart in asking for increased privacy protections as part of the rule. “The primary beneficiaries of this rule are venture capitalists and others taking advantage of patient data,” said Epic executive Sumit Rana in an interview Monday. Disclosing patient records in unfettered fashion can hurt patients, he said. The rule’s promise of eased access to a patient’s entire medical record through an interface is an invitation for app developers — well-funded and sketchy alike — to pick over patient data and commercialize it, he said. In that, he said the proposed rules “go well beyond the 21st Century Cures Act,” which sought to modernize health care with better use of IT.

Yale study: Doctors give electronic health records an ‘F’ | YaleNews

But the rapid rollout of EHRs following the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, which pumped $27 billion of federal incentives into the adoption of EHRs in the U.S., forced doctors to adapt quickly to often complex systems, leading to increasing frustration. The study notes that physicians spend one to two hours on EHRs and other deskwork for every hour spent with patients, and an additional one to two hours daily of personal time on EHR-related activities. “As recently as 10 years ago, physicians were still scribbling notes,” Melnick said. “Now, there’s a ton of structured data entry, which means that physicians have to check a lot of boxes. Often this structured data does very little to improve care; instead, it’s used for billing. And looking for communication from another doctor or a specific test result in a patient’s chart can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The boxes may have been checked, but the patient’s story and information have been lost in the process.” Melnick’s study zeroed in on the effect of EHRs in physician burnout.

Data standards may be wonky, but they will transform health care - STAT

The proposed rule creates a highly promising road map toward the easy exchange of electronic health information that exemplifies a minimalist regulatory approach for creating the standardization and uniformity needed to spark an apps marketplace. It would also create economic and commercial guardrails to promote a level playing field between electronic health record vendors and app developers. These regulations are an essential ingredient for a burgeoning apps market. All six individuals who previously served as the national coordinator of health information technology have endorsed the rule. It has sparked robust conversation: During the public comment period on the proposed rule, nearly 2,000 comments were submitted about interoperability and information blocking. As might be expected, there is pushback from the electronic health record industry on timelines and price controls. The proposed timeline — two years of development— has proven highly realistic, given the successful implementation of SMART on FHIR among the major brands of electronic health records by the Argonaut working group in just one year, and the work of the CARIN alliance to help connect patient apps to the SMART API.

Artificial intelligence needs patients' voice to remake health care - STAT

Health care AI companies currently harness data from electronic health records (EHRs) to build their products. EHRs are incomplete at best, dangerous at worst. They are so saturated with answers to questions required by insurance companies’ reimbursement rules and core measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that they end up having little to do with actual patient care.