After finally finishing their M U attestations many medical practices are probably hesitant to lend full attention to any further healthcare reform. Alas, things continue to change: especially in the absence of our watchful eyes. Not surprisingly, the Dept. of Health and Human Services has several changes it plans to sneak in on us during 2012, including a couple that involve no incentives and may lead to tons of extra work.
The first to reach approval will most likely be Meaningful Use Stage 2 regulations. These will include more security requirements, clinical measurements, longer measurement timelines, and reporting rather than sole attestation. The Stage 2 guidelines will also require new standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria that EMR’s will have to meet to support MU.
Those who comply with Stage 2 will be promised incentive payments. Strangely, these are simply proposed rules and providers will be able to give their opinions about them to the HHS.
The second rules are amendments to HIPPA. The first of these grants patients the right to view an “access report” of whom has seen their health record. This proposed mandate is unpopular among many physicians, who hold that the maintenance of all this audit trail data would be enormous while virtually no patients would actually request to see it. The last of the HIPPA changes seeks to impose stricter security enforcement and breach notifications, and is the most disturbing to many. Under this regulation, it currently appears that providers would be required to report security breaches of PHI to the patient, HHS, and possibly media: even if no harm was done.
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