health law

The California Court of Appeal has ruled that a healthcare provider did not violate that state's medical confidentiality law when a laptop containing four million patients' medical records was stolen, The Recorder reports. Sutter Medical Foundation could have faced $4 billion in statutory damages. 

The court concluded there could not be liability without evidence that anyone actually looked at the records and the patients' confidentiality was breached, The Recorder also reports.

Congressional leaders blasted the lack of interoperability between different vendors' electronic health records systems, Politico reports. The harshest criticism came from "Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), who charged that Verona, Wis.-based Epic Systems, the leading EHR company, was operating 'closed platforms' that did not allow information to easily flow into and out of its electronic health records systems," Politico further reports. Epic is the most highly used electronic health record system, Politico also reports.

The issue of interoperability is a big one with electronic health records: if different systems can't talk to each other, then patients can't benefit from having information that is portable between different healthcare providers or readily available if they need emergency care while traveling.

Just hours after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit threw out the federal tax regulation that implements the Obamacare subsidies available to people with annual incomes of up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, the Fourth Circuit has upheld them, the National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle reports: "In King v. Burwell, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejected arguments that the subsidies—tax credits offsetting the cost of insurance for low- and moderate-income persons—are limited only to insurance purchased through state-created exchanges under the health insurance law."
 

A major blow has been delivered today to Obamacare, Reuters reports: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit accepted one of the main legal challenges to the policy by conservatives opposed to an expansion of the federal government" and threw out the federal tax regulation that implements Obamacare subsidies available to people with annual incomes of up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

USA Today reports that the incentives being provided by the federal government to get doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records are being offered even though those EHRs "currently make it easier for health care providers to defraud government-paid health programs." The issue, according to USA Today, is that the EHRs don't have auditing safeguards in place to prevent fraud or the safeguards are "vulnerable to corruption" from providers adding unnecessary notes to existing records or creating new records where none existed before.

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has spent $22.5 billion in financial incentives for healthcare providers to use EHRs, USA Today also reports.

A series of data breaches have put higher pressure on Corporate America, including retailers like Target, to tighten its cybersecurity. But the health care sector is not engaged on the security of electronic health records and faces the risk of hackers exposing sensitive patient information, Politico reports: "As health data become increasingly digital and the use of electronic health records booms, thieves see patient records in a vulnerable health care system as attractive bait, according to experts interviewed by POLITICO. On the black market, a full identity profile contained in a single record can bring as much as $500."

Politico also points out that information in a patient's health record, including medical history and family contacts, can't be undone.

The U.S. Supreme Court, 5-4, ruled that closely owned corporations can't be forced to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under Obamacare, the New York Times' Adam Liptak reports. Conestoga Wood Specialties, a cabinet maker, and Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft stores, challenged that part of the health law on the grounds that it violates their Christian beliefs. The Supreme Court found that, under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the mandate was a substantial burden on the corporations' religious liberty. Even if the government has a compelling interest in ensuring women's access to contraception, the current mechanism of the mandate is not the "least restrictive means of serving that interest," the majority's author, Justice Samuel Alito, wrote.

A new study shows that safety concerns with electronic health records persist after they are implemented--even though patient safety is part of the reason to go electronic with patient records, Politico reports. The study is based on 344 incidents with Veterans Administration electronic health records.

Apple's partnership with Epic Systems, the dominant vendor of electronic health records, on a HealthKit platform for health apps and tracking devices will initially store around 60 different types of health data, Forbes contributor Zina Moukheiber writes. A conusmer using HealthKit has to give Apple permission to share biometrics with Epic's electronic health record system for patients, MyChart, in order to notify their clinicians.

This partnership could be a key step in making electronic health records more portable and interoperable between different healthcare providers. There also will be privacy concerns that Apple will have to engage with as it moves into the health information technology sector.

President Barack's Obama administration has ended a 33-year ban on Medicare coverage for gender reassignment surgery, The Washington Post reports. The decision will likely put pressure on private insurers to cover medical procedures for transgendered people, The Post also reports.

There are still barriers, however: "Patients covered under Medicare will not be guaranteed coverage for surgeries under Friday’s decision; they will have to justify their need just as they have to for any other medical treatments. The ruling does not apply to Medicaid, the health program administered by states for low-income individuals and families," according to the Post.