Articles and Blogs

Annually, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) provides $400 million in funding to health care providers who serve rural populations through its Rural Health Care Program (“RHC Program”). The RHC Program is aimed at improving and reducing the cost of communications services that are used in providing health care services to residents of the rural... READ MORE

In a December 28, 2017, a memo (“Memo”) to state survey agency directors, CMS made clear that texting patient information is allowed as long as a secure texting platform is used, recognizing the importance of texting as an “essential and valuable means of communication among the team members” caring for patients. Providers must comply with... READ MORE

For an update to this article, please click here. As stated in our previous blog, while there has been no official guidance from CMS regarding a broad prohibition on the texting of protected health information (“PHI”), there has been significant discussion in industry circles about CMS’s recently stated position against texting PHI. As reported in... READ MORE

For an update to this article, please click here. If your organization allows texting, consider recent CMS communications prohibiting all texting Hall Render has become aware that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has been communicating to hospitals that texting is unacceptable, even through secure text messaging applications, due to concerns about the... READ MORE

On September 6, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) published final guidance (“Guidance”) summarizing its recommendations for medical devices that are connected to each other and to other technology (“interoperable medical devices”). The Guidance finalizes preliminary guidance from January 2016 and is intended to encourage rapid innovation in the marketplace by allowing... READ MORE

Eligible Professionals participating in the Medicare Meaningful Use Electronic Health Record Incentive Program have until October 1, 2017 to submit a hardship application to avoid a downward payment adjustment in 2018. A participant may submit a hardship application if the Eligible Professional: Is a first-time Eligible Professional who intends to participate in the advancing care information performance... READ MORE

With the intention of improving care for individuals receiving substance use disorder treatment and mental health care by better coordinating care, Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Improving Access to Behavioral Health Information Technology Act (“Act”), a bipartisan bill designed to grant incentives to behavioral health organizations to adopt electronic... READ MORE

The news of the $155 million settlement between eClinicalWorks (“eCW”), several eCW employees and the U.S. Department of Justice has left many current users of the eClinicalWorks EHR (“eCW EHR”) wondering what impact it will have upon them. First, the terms of the settlement provide several rights to current users. Second, actions taken to... READ MORE

On April 18, 2017, a class action was initiated against MDLive, Inc. asserting that MDLive inappropriately collected and disclosed patient medical information. MDLive is a low acuity telehealth platform that enables patients to communicate with physicians via their smart phones, computers or other mobile devices. Without commenting on the merits of the specific claims... READ MORE

On May 12, 2017, a massive cyber attack affecting health care organizations across the world prompted the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to issue a warning to U.S. health care organizations. The attack apparently first began in England, causing information systems at health care organizations throughout the country to become infected... READ MORE