Peace Corps Plans EHR System for 2013
HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGES AND
MEGACHANGES
www.brookings.edu
A report from the Brookings Institu-
tion finds that state HIEs vary widely in
their effectiveness. Of the five HIEs it
examined, Indiana and Massachusetts
have the most successful health data
exchanges, while California and Ten-
nessee have the least successful.
SUPPORT FOR ACCOUNTABLE CARE: RECOM-
MENDED HEALTH IT INFRASTRUCTURE
www.ehealthinitiative.org
A report from eHealth Initiative recom-
mends that ACO infrastructures be
patient-centered; support changing
priorities; sustain secure collection,
storage, and exchange of personal
medical data; and boost care coordi-
nation between providers and patients.
It aims to identify trends and support
the development of a robust health IT
infrastructure that supports the needs
of an ACO model.
The Peace Corps plans to acquire an
EHR system to serve its volunteers
stationed in 77 developing countries. It
wants to develop a concept EHR and
test it in a limited pilot by September
and deploy it in fiscal year 2013.
Peace Corps staff in country will use
a laptop or mobile device to record basic medical information and synchronize it to OpenEMR, a free open source
application that will be customized to
meet the Peace Corps’ requirements.
The system will need to offer searchable problem, medication, and allergy
lists and a record of vaccinations and
allow for the electronic transfer of information from a pre-service medical
screening system.
The system must also provide a bill-
ing module to export a super bill to a
claims database. The super bill will
include healthcare provider, cost, and
other information in standards codes
to enable an audit trail to track specific
expenses, medical costs for specific
conditions, and medical budgeting
from the bottom up.
GIVING OFFICE-BASED PHYSICIANS
ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO PATIENTS’ PRIOR
IMAGING AND LAB RESULTS DID NOT DETER
ORDERING OF TESTS
http://content.healthaffairs.org/con-
tent/31/3/488.abstract
A study in the March 2012 issue of
Health Affairs finds that EHRs could
encourage physicians to order imaging
tests more frequently, raising questions
about whether the technology can help
reduce medical costs. It found that
physicians with electronic access to
patients’ previous imaging results or-
dered tests 40 percent more frequently
than those using paper records.
THE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF BREACHED PRO-
TECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
http://webstore.ansi.org/phi
A report from the American National
Standards Institute, Internet Security
Alliance, and Santa Fe Group finds that
many healthcare organizations lack
sufficient resources to adopt strong
privacy and security protections for
patient data. The report offers a five-
step method for evaluating the costs of
health data breaches. ¢
Social Security Offers Applicants E-Signature
This month, adults applying for Social
Security disability benefits will be able
to sign and submit the Authorization to
Disclose Information to the Social Security form (SSA-827) electronically as
the last step of the online process. Offering the option of electronically signing and submitting the form helps the
agency provide better service.
The HIPAA privacy rule and other
applicable laws permit the use of electronic signatures, and SSA is encouraging medical providers to treat the
new electronic signature the same as a
“wet” signature on the SSA-827.
Adults applying for disability benefits
will “click and sign” the SSA-827 as
part of the online application process,
immediately making the form part of
Social Security’s electronic disability
folder.
SSA will continue to take the appro-
priate steps to verify the identity of the
signer and to protect the information
and records received. Applicants also
receive a copy of the electronically
signed and dated SSA-827 for their re-
cords.
Medical providers will continue to
receive a HIPAA-compliant SSA-827
with each Social Security request for
records. The only change to the cur-
rent form will be in the completed sig-
nature block, which will indicate that
the applicant electronically signed us-
ing the new process. An electronically
signed SSA-827 requires no change to
existing procedures for processing au-
thorization forms.
The agency expects the use of this
new signature process to expand over
time as the number of online filers in-
creases.
For more information about this process, go to www.ssa.gov/disability/
professionals/ eAuthorization.htm. ¢
