HEALTHCARE ALERT: Senate Approves Bill to Improve Electronic Healthcare System

Click here to read The Improving Health Act Bill (Approved by Senate HELP Committee)

By Cindy M. Amedee
​Partner, Taylor Porter
cindy.amedee@taylorporter.com

In keeping with Taylor Porter’s commitment to its healthcare clients to actively monitor the latest state and federal regulatory developments within the healthcare industry, our firm wants to make clients aware of two noteworthy stories this week that focus on the growing concern of health information technology issues and a new federal bill being introduced to help regulate electronic health record systems.

Reported by BNA Bloomberg, “Senate Committee Approves Health IT Bill” reports news that the Senate HELP Committee approved The Improving Health IT Act that creates a star rating program for federally certified electronic health record systems and directs federal regulators to address hospitals' ongoing issue with matching patients to their electronic health records and electronically exchanging patient records with other healthcare providers. The bill is part of a slate of bills that make up the Senate's version of the 21st Century Cures bill (H.R. 6) that passed the House last July.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) called the bill an “important and far-reaching piece of legislation.” The HELP Committee expects to approve more than 30 bills by April that together will act as a companion to the House's Cures bill, Alexander said.

The bill comes on the heels of an NBC News report that last year healthcare record hacking increased 11,000 percent as roughly one out of every three Americans had their healthcare records compromised and there were approximately 100 million healthcare records stolen last year. Criminals can use healthcare records to order prescriptions, pay for treatments and surgery and even file false tax returns.

Health information sharing, and the rules and regulations of software, licensing and technology issues are coming to the forefront as more is being done to try to curb record hacking.

Taylor Porter’s Healthcare Practice Team can help clients understand these issues and prepare themselves to take proactive measures in medical records, e-health issues and HIPAA privacy and security to protect the information of their patients.