Healthcare IT Update

Watch out. If your hospital breaches 1,000 records, you face a whopping $282,000 fine.

Hospitals that read the HHS OIG’s 2010 Work Plan carefully will find an important clue about how to handle health information technology in the future. And it’s buried in a very real and present threat, so read on to find out how to not only avoid penalties from CMS in the present but also prepare for ARRA’s “meaningful use” requirement, which CMS announced on Dec. 30 will be tied to quality data.

Reporting quality data and portable device compliance under HIPAA are two hot areas for hospitals in 2010, according to Jim Sheldon-Dean, director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, who gave a recent audio presentation titled “OIG 2010 Work Plan for Hospitals.” And that makes sense, given CMS’s…