Former Constellation Health director arrested for investor fraud
The former director of a now-defunct revenue cycle management company was arrested by federal authorities in JFK airport over the weekend for his role in a $300 million investment fraud scheme.
Pavandeep Bakhshi, a United Kingdom resident and former board director of Constellation Health, has been charged with securities fraud after the company and its executives engaged in a scheme to defraud investors by creating fictitious acquisitions, fake income streams and phony customers and making material misrepresentations about the company.
The complaint filed against Bakhshi does not mention Constellation Health specifically but refers to a revenue cycle management company. Earlier this year, several former executives, including the company’s CEO, were named in a criminal complaint filed by the Department of Justice and a civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. (DOJ release)
AHIMA, AMIA recommend HIPAA tweaks
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) say a few small changes to HIPAA could open up patient access to medical records.
The two organizations are recommending that policymakers establish a new term, “Health Data Set,” to include clinical, biomedical and claims data. The groups also called for revisions to HIPAA’s “designed record set” to require certified health IT vendors to provide DRS to patients electronically.
AHIMA and AMIA said regulators should encourage physician note sharing through initiatives like OpenNotes and extend HIPAA’s right of access to noncovered entities to include mHealth and social media applications. (Recommendations—PDF)
Hospital beds go digital
A leading hospital bed manufacturer is making big updates to its product by including sensors to monitor heart and respiratory rates and vital signs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The new beds will include alerts when a patient’s condition is worsening, according to Hill-Rom CEO John Groetelaars. The company declined to say how much the new beds would cost, but current list prices for hospital beds range from $8,300 to $19,800, according to the ECRI Institute. (WSJ)
A big medical records mistake
A report from CNBC details one patient's harrowing experience with electronic health records, which mistakenly indicated she had given birth twice. She had never been pregnant.
Morgan Gleason recounted her experience finding out her chart said she gave birth to her first child at 13. She ended up having to file a formal document requesting a correction with her doctor’s office after the assistant insisted she was wrong. (CNBC)