In an April 20 press release, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) announced that it discovered a breach of patient information, which resulted when a document sent to an individual outside of UAMS for analysis of billing charges was not properly de-identified. A UAMS physician sent financial data to an individual who was not ...

The rate of electronic health record adoption among priority primary care providers is rising rapidly in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Southern New Jersey, according to directors of the regional extension centers in those states. The directors presented an update to attendees of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Information Management System Society's ...

The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services (AHIOS) announced that Bonnie Coffey, former AHIOS president and charter member, will be presenting an education track at the 2010 American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Convention and Exhibit in Orlando, FL, next week. Coffey's presentation, titled ''Overcoming EMR ...

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) submitted comments this week to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in response to the request for information, ''HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosures Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; Request for ...

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for issuing periodic guidance on the provisions in the HIPAA Security Rule. It will offer a series of guidance documents to assist organizations in identifying and implementing the most effective and appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, ...

What a week it's been for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Aside from celebrating the first anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), officials introduced several new comrades to the public. On Feb. 17, Joy Pritts was named chief privacy officer in the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health ...

(Editor's note: The following blog was written by Mark McGraw, an associate editor on staff at ADVANCE.) It's movie night, and you're not interested in subtitles or surrealism. Maybe next week you'll go for the one with the ''Winner: Best Foreign Language Film, 2008 Venice Film Festival'' sticker on it. But tonight you're in the mood for a ...

If you've been following Jay's blog, ''XY Files in and MT World,'' recently, you know there have been some frightening reports of medical records being sold overseas. It's enough to make you hunker down in the States and demand your records stay local. On the contrary, some patients are ditching domestic services and seeking medical care abroad. ...