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EHRs/PHRs
Privacy Law Showdown? Legal and Policy Analysis.
#2 in a series — Modifications to HIPAA Privacy Laws: Impact on Microsoft HealthVault, Google Health, and other PHRs.Â
by Deven McGraw JD, MPH, Center for Democracy & Technology
Introduction
There has been considerable discussion lately about whether or not the stimulus legislation (ARRA) extends HIPAA coverage to commercial vendors of personal health records (PHRs) any time they contract with entities already covered by HIPAA like hospitals, health plans or physicians groups. (For those of you who don’t know, HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and […]
Privacy Law Showdown? Setting the Stage
Today’s post is the first in a series entitled:
Modifications to HIPAA Privacy Laws: Impact on Microsoft HealthVault, Google Health, and other PHRs.Â
We’ll explore how recent changes in privacy provisions of  ARRA/HITECH Federal stimulus legislation affect personal health information (PHI) platform companies (e.g., HealthVault, Google Health, Dossia) and personal health record (PHR) companies.
Health IT expert and journalist Neil Versel described the issue in the April 7 issue of BNET Healthcare:
Although Google and Microsoft have gotten plenty of attention for their Web-based personal health records, both companies have long […]
Is the Health Data Liquidity Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
What a difference in attitude! Compare two press announcements from April 5:
1) CCHIT: Interoperability Isn’t Doable With Today’s Technology .
Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Interoperability: Supplying the Building Blocks for a Patient-centered EHR , April 5, 2009
This report…(is) also an attempt to inject a dose of reality into the discussion of interoperability – from practical expectations for the near term and future years to the challenges of developing software architecture and implementation guides that can execute new […]
EHR 2.0: Thinking Outside the Cat Box
One of the potential dangers of limiting $17 B HITECH federal stimulus funds to electronic health records (EHRs) is the risk of locking-in outdated technologies. Let’s consider what this might mean.
If you think of today’s EHR technology as EHR 1.0, what might EHR 2.0 look like? This post presents a number of innovative ways to conceptualize EHR 2.0:
EHR as Platform + Applications
EHR as Clinical Groupware
EHR Integrated with PHR
EHR as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
EHR as a “Publish-Discover” Search Engine
EHR + Disease Management Services = […]
Stand for Quality Group: “Link HIT Investment to Quality Improvement”
On March 24, Stand for Quality — a new group representing 165 diverse health care organizations — called for a new era of quality in health care. Their white paper is titled Building a Foundation for High Quality, Affordable Health Care: Linking Performance Measurement to Health Reform .
The perspectives of Stand for Quality are a remarkable break from the past and have significant implications for future […]
Can Cats Think Outside the Box? Here’s a Role Model.
Even though I am a self-admitted dog person, Hoover is my buddy.
Hoover got a new shoebox as a Christmas present. While most cats are very tied to their existing surroundings and don’t like things to change, Hoover is not your average cat.
The following photos were taken over about a two week period. Hoover hopes you enjoy them!
Wait and See: What’s Unclear or To-Be-Determined (TBD) About HITECH.
Sometimes laws are passed and the statute itself represents 95% of the work — there aren’t many details to figure out or loose ends to tidy up.
That isn’t the case with HITECH. The HITECH statute is just the beginning.
Whether you’re a cat or a dog, you’ll have hopes and fears about aspects of HITECH that are unclear or yet to-be-determined (TBD).
These include:
Feline Foot-Dragging: Three Non-Innovative Aspects of HITECH
What do cats (incumbent EHR vendors and their supporters) have to smile about over HITECH?
A lot.
…and it’s not very complicated. HITECH directs $17 B to the cat community, and leaves scraps for the dogs.
(As a refresher, the cat POV is that HITECH stimulus funds should simply pay directly for electronic health record (EHR) technology — that providers will figure out how to use the technology to improve quality and outcomes; the dog POV is that HITECH should pay for improved […]
Dogged Optimism: Five Innovative Aspects of HITECH
If you’re a dog (an innovator), what’s there to smile about over HITECH? Quite a bit.
In the first post of this series, I suggested that HITECH favors cats by about 60/40 and noted that the single most cat-like feature of HITECH is providing incentives for physicians and hospitals to acquire and implement EHRs — but only EHRs. Reader “Mark” commented:
“How does this work out to 60/40? Looks to me like 100% cats.”
Let’s look a bit deeper to see how HITECH […]
Will HITECH Lead to Innovation? The Continuing Cat/Dog Dialogue
Will the recently passed HITECH legislation — the federal stimulus funding for health IT — encourage innovation? or will it lock in outdated electronic health record (EHR) technology?
It’s a mixed bag — HITECH legislation is both dog-like (innovative) and catlike (protecting incumbents).  I’ll refresh your memory below on more specific definitions of cats and dogs.
Among many other reasons, HITECH is dog-like primarily because it has ended the question of WHETHER the U.S. is really serious about health IT reform. HITECH spells out […]