News From Around the Web
> Rensselaer (N.Y.) County Jail nursing supervisor Elaine Young resigned amid an investigation that she and other employees of the jail used a secure electronic health record system to access confidential medical information of corrections officers and others, according to a report by the Albany Times Union. Some corrections officers may have used the supervisor's password without her knowledge to access the EHR. Article
> Canadian doctors are reporting problems and frustrations with their EHRs, according to an article in the Ottawa Citizen. The Canadian physicians cite many of the same concerns with their EHRs as their U.S. counterparts, including usability issues and slowdowns in work. Article
> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a new toolkit to help providers successfully attest to Stage 2 of Meaningful Use, according to a recent Health Data Management post. The 158-page interactive document provides Frequently Asked Questions, tip sheets hyperlinks to clinical quality measures, and other resources. Article
Health Finance News
> The 2 percent cuts to Medicare payments expected as a result of the budget sequestration likely will affect the bottom line of some hospitals to the tune of millions of dollars a year, but a variety of reports suggest hospital finance leaders will be able to cope with the reductions for now. The sequestration triggered $85 billion in across-the-board cuts to federal spending, including $11 billion to the Medicare program. Article
> Officials in Charleston, W.V., have no intention of ever asking them to give up their tax exemptions, saying what they provide in charity care far outweighs potential revenue that could be gained. Article
Provider News
> The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' Office of Inspector General warns that physician-owned distributorships (PODs) that sell implantable medical devices are full of opportunities to enrich referring physicians with illegal kickbacks. PODs are "inherently suspect under the anti-kickback statute," according to an OIG special fraud alert, published this week. The alert noted that PODs "produce substantial fraud and abuse risk and pose dangers to patient safety." Article
And Finally... He's getting off way too easy. Article