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Tag: HHS

  • Epic Fighting HHS Rule Over Medical Data Sharing

    Epic Fighting HHS Rule Over Medical Data Sharing

    CNBC is reporting that Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner has emailed client hospitals around the country urging them to push back on proposed rules from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make medical data sharing easier.

    The HHS has proposed a set of rules that would make it easier for patients to access their medical data at no extra cost and prevent companies from blocking their access. Specifically, the rules will make it easier for applications to access the medical data via application programming interfaces (APIs) and will facilitate sharing data with other hospitals and medical practices a patient may want to use.

    Epic is one of the largest medical records companies and is staunchly opposed to the new rules, citing patient privacy concerns. There is likely more to Epic’s opposition, however, as any legislation that would increase data mobility would also make it significantly easier for other tech companies to build competing products. Ones such as Apple and Microsoft are already at least peripherally in the medical space, and the new rules would open up new opportunists for them.

    According to CNBC, “former White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra expressed frustration over Epic’s move. ‘It is unfortunate to see this much effort placed at stalling the important, bipartisan progress we have made to open up health information — at a minimum to consumers and institutions they trust.’”

  • Obamacare Delayed: 2015 Enrollment Will Now Start After 2014 Elections

    Obamacare Delayed: 2015 Enrollment Will Now Start After 2014 Elections

    After a slow start to the enrollment of Obamacare, the Obama administration is set to delay enrollment for 2015 by one month from October 15 to November 15. This means that while the 2015 enrollment period had been set to begin Oct. 15, 2014 and end Dec. 7, it will now begin Nov. 15, 2014, and end Jan. 15, 2015.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney said pushing back the start date will give insurers more time to get an idea of their new pool of customers before they set their 2015 premiums accordingly. “What was already going to be a back-loaded process is going to be more back-loaded, and that’s going to leave insurers a lot of data to sort through in a short period of time,” Carney said in a statement.

    This latest Obamacare adjustment will definitely add more political controversy over the embattled new healthcare law. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican has already described the move as “a cynical political move” and added that any changes to healthcare plans such as premium increase should be made public before the 2014 election.

    Carney has also denied that next year’s elections are the reason for the postponement but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has a different view.  Cantor said that the move is meant to hide some weaknesses in the health care act before the election. “Clearly, President Obama does not want voters to see increased prices, more cancellations and decreased options under Obamacare before they go to the ballot box” Cantor said in a statement “If Obamacare is so great, why are Democrats so scared of voters knowing its consequences?”

    But there are others who have welcomed the move saying the postponement will give consumers more time to learn about plans before enrolling. Carney has said that the administration expects more people to sign up for the health care insurance at the end of the current open enrollment period ending 31st march 2014.

    However, this means that the Americans will have to wait until after election before hearing about any potential premium increase rather than in the weeks before.

    (main photo via whitehouse.org)

  • Medicare Fraud Crackdown Nabs 91 Doctors, Nurses, and Others

    Last week U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that a Medicare Fraud Strike Force operation has led to charges against 91 people in seven cities across the U.S. According to the HHS, those charged include doctors, nurses, and “other licensed medical professionals.

    “Today’s enforcement actions reveal an alarming and unacceptable trend of individuals attempting to exploit federal health care programs to steal billions in taxpayer dollars for personal gain,” said Holder. “Such activities not only siphon precious taxpayer resources, drive up health care costs, and jeopardize the strength of the Medicare program – they also disproportionately victimize the most vulnerable members of society, including elderly, disabled and impoverished Americans.”

    As indictments were unsealed, “dozens” of those charged were arrested or surrendered. They are accused of participating in Medicare fraud that totals $429.2 million in false billing. The fraud includes $230 million in home health care fraud, over $100 million in mental health care fraud, and over $49 million in ambulance transportation fraud. The charges are for health care fraud and fraud-related crimes such as conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering, and “violations of the anti-kickback statutes.”

    The HHS also suspended payment to or “took other administrative action” against 30 health care providers following what it states are credible allegations of fraud and a data-driven analysis.

    “Today’s arrests put criminals on notice that we are cracking down hard on people who want to steal from Medicare,” said Sebelius. “The health care law gives us new tools to better fight fraud and make Medicare stronger. In addition to the arrests made today, HHS used new authority from the health care law to stop future payments to many of the health care providers suspected of fraud, saving Medicare resources and taxpayer dollars from being lost to fraud in the first place.”