Morning Headlines 1/5/15

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System

HHS issues a final rule modifying HIPAA to allow psychiatrists to report potentially violent patients that should be prevented from purchasing a gun to the National Instant Criminal Background Check system.

Meaningful Use: When the Exemption Becomes the Norm

Athenahealth SVP and General Counsel Dan Haley discusses the impact that blanket MU hardship exemptions will have on the program at large, saying “when every program participant is potentially exempt from the application of what was heretofore deemed a key component of said program, there really isn’t a program any more.”

Artificial pancreas system aimed at type 1 diabetes mellitus

Researchers at Harvard Medical School will begin the largest-ever long-term clinical trial of an “artificial pancreas” comprised of an implantable continuous glucose monitor and  an insulin pump that will work together to auto-regulate insulin levels for Type 1 diabetics.

25 W.Va. hospitals see $265 million drop in uncompensated care

In West Virginia, uncompensated care has dropped $265 million in the last year, a shift attributed to an overall drop in the uninsured rate brought on by the ACA.