35 hours ago How has the HITECH Act impacted EHR availability and patient portal access? Dec 29, 2009 · The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law on February 17, 2009, to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology. Subtitle D of the … >> Go To The Portal
HITECH Act Enforcement Interim Final Rule The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law on February 17, 2009, to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law on February 17, 2009, to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act imposes pressure on health care organizations to qualify for “Meaningful Use”. It is assumed that portals should increase patient participation in medical decisions, but whether or not the use of portals improves outcomes remains to be seen.
Subtitle D of the HITECH Act addresses the privacy and security concerns associated with the electronic transmission of health information, in part, through several provisions that strengthen the civil and criminal enforcement of the HIPAA rules.
Patient healthcare portals help medical practices adhere to HIPAA regulations both by providing patients with easy access to their medical records and by using security measures to protect those records.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and creates incentives related to health care information technology, including incentives for the use of electronic health record (EHR) systems among providers.
The five HITECH Act goals have been described as the five goals of the US healthcare system – improve quality, safety, and efficiency; engage patients in their care; increase coordination of care; improve the health status of the population; and ensure privacy and security.
HITECH covers ways to comply with HIPAA requirements and spells out the penalties that can be enforced for failure to comply. The Act explains willful neglect, or reckless disregard for protecting patients' privacy. It also explains the penalties for such actions, including up to $250,000 in fines.
HITECH changed the nature of the relationships among health care professionals, organizations, patients, and payors by focusing on the implementation and use of health information technology. It puts particular emphasis on privacy and security, including expanded application and enforcement.
HIPAA covers privacy and security for all health records, electronic or not. The HITECH Act is now part of HIPAA, but it focuses on electronic records and the security surrounding them and data breaches. As a health care provider, you need to understand both laws and how they work together.
Background and Objective The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has distributed billions of dollars to physicians as incentives for adopting certified electronic health records (EHRs) through the meaningful use (MU) program ultimately aimed at improving healthcare outcomes.
The HITECH Act established ONC in law and provides the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the authority to establish programs to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency through the promotion of health IT, including electronic health records (EHRs) and private and secure electronic health ...
The HITECH Act provides incentives for providers and hospitals for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Although the official definition of “Meaningful Use” is still in development, the HITECH Act specifically highlights “information exchange” as one requirement for the incentives.
Under the HITECH Act, any business that qualifies as a covered entity, business associate, or subcontractor of a business associate is now required to notify affected individuals and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) within 60 days, in the event that a breach of unsecured data ...
Enacted as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the HITECH Act expands the HIPAA encryption compliance requirement set, requiring the disclosure of data breaches of “unprotected” (unencrypted) personal health records, including those by business associates, vendors and related entities.
The Privacy Rule generally also gives the right to access the individual’s health records to a personal representative of the individual. Under the Rule, an individual’s personal representative is someone authorized under State or other applicable law to act on behalf of the individual in making health care related decisions. With respect to deceased individuals, the individual’s personal representative is an executor, administrator, or other person who has authority under State or other law to act on behalf of the deceased individual or the individual’s estate. Thus, whether a family member or other person is a personal representative of the individual, and therefore has a right to access the individual’s PHI under the Privacy Rule, generally depends on whether that person has authority under State law to act on behalf of the individual. See 45 CFR 164.502 (g) and 45 CFR 164.524.
An individual’s personal representative (generally, a person with authority under State law to make health care decisions for the individual) also has the right to access PHI about the individual in a designated record set (as well as to direct the covered entity to transmit a copy of the PHI to a designated person or entity of the individual’s choice), upon request, consistent with the scope of such representation and the requirements discussed below. See 45 CFR 164.502 (g) and http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/coveredentities/personalreps.html for more information about the rights that can be exercised by personal representatives.
With limited exceptions, the HIPAA Privacy Rule (the Privacy Rule) provides individuals with a legal, enforceable right to see and receive copies upon request of the information in their medical and other health records maintained by their health care providers and health plans.
The individual’s request to direct the PHI to another person must be in writing, signed by the individual, and clearly identify the designated person and where to send the PHI. A covered entity may accept an electronic copy of a signed request (e.g., PDF), as well as an electronically executed request (e.g., via a secure web portal) that includes an electronic signature. The same requirements for providing the PHI to the individual, such as the fee limitations and requirements for providing the PHI in the form and format and manner requested by the individual, apply when an individual directs that the PHI be sent to another person. See 45 CFR 164.524 (c) (3).
In addition, two categories of information are expressly excluded from the right of access: Psychotherapy notes , which are the personal notes of a mental health care provider documenting or analyzing the contents of a counseling session, that are maintained separate from the rest of the patient’s medical record.
Providing individuals with easy access to their health information empowers them to be more in control of decisions regarding their health and well-being. For example, individuals with access to their health information are better able to monitor chronic conditions, adhere to treatment plans, find and fix errors in their health records, ...
In contrast to State laws that authorize higher or different fees than are permitted under HIPAA, HIPAA does not override those State laws that provide individuals with greater rights of access to their health information than the HIPAA Privacy Rule does. See 45 CFR 160.202 and 160.203.