kickback news from FierceHealthIT
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HHS accepts HIT standards, now eligible for safe harbors
After a year of review, HHS has formally recognized a set of health IT standards for laboratory results reporting, public health reporting for biosurveillance and consumer management of their own... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Rule changes not increasing EMR uptake as expected
With new changes to the Stark Act and federal anti-kickback laws, it's supposed to make sense now for hospitals to offer free EMRs to physicians (and for physicians to accept them). However, for a... Read more...
HHS rules on doctor IT subsidies muddy the waters
Last year, HHS took a step which should have been a big relief to hospital IT departments--it gave hospitals guidance on how they could provide doctors with EMR systems without running afoul of... Read more...
Still no IRS ruling on giving physicians IT
For a while now, the voluntary hospital industry has been nervously waiting for the IRS to offer some guidance on whether they can legally give EMRs or other IT equipment to physicians--and have gotten no response. Now, hospital executives are starting to get antsy. Last week the American Hospital Association issued yet another request urging the IRS to offer clear guidance on whether health IT donations to doctors are OK, acceptable some of the time or unacceptable.
It's now been …
... Read more...Health IT legislation likely in '07
Sure, you've already been hearing pronouncements from President Bush for a while, and without a doubt, they'll reverberate over time. But next year may be the first year that Congress gets involved in earnest. Observers say that while some health IT measures got stuck on the Hill in 2006, in the coming year legislators are likely to see health IT as a priority. With the private sector signaling that it's more than ready for health IT change, supporting data-driven initiatives such as …
... Read more...HHS, IRS rules on EMR donations clash
In some cases, giving a physician practice software, hardware and IT support may be the only way to get them on board with hospital EMR efforts. But despite new HHS rules allowing the giveaways, non-profits may not be able to do so. In August, the HHS Office of the Inspector General issued guidelines specifically exempting such donations from anti-kickback and Stark law rules. But then …
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