Morning Headlines 1/22/16
Ransomware has been blocking EHR access at Titus Regional Medical Center (TX) since January 15, sending all hospital operations back to paper. “It’s just like in the 1970s, before electronic medical records. Everything is on paper and people are serving as runners. There’s no automation,” explains the hospital’s public information officer. There is currently no estimate for when the system will be back online.
VA chief to Congress: You can’t fire your way to excellence
VA Secretary Robert McDonald testifies before Congress that he has fired 2.600 VA employees since he took office 18 months ago, and that he is now working to turn the organization into the number one customer-service agency in government, primarily through new IT projects
Clarifying, Eliminating and Enforcing Special Enrollment Periods
CMS updates its rules on special enrollment periods for insurance exchanges to crack down on those that “remain uninsured and then decide they need health insurance when they get sick.”
Time for a Patient-Driven Health Information Economy?
An NEJM opinion piece calls for APIs that could help establish a patient-controlled health record infrastructure, citing reluctance of providers to share medical records with patients, despite HIPAA and HITECH mandates.
Traditionally Professional Courtesy is something that physicians gave each other - but we had to be careful with it when…