As featured on InformationWeek

By Neil Versel

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission announces a privacy and security testing program to accompany existing health information exchange accreditation.

As featured on HIMSS Business Edge

By Lee Barrett

With the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009, electronic business processes in healthcare are evolving at lightning speed. More specifically, organizations are seeking more effective ways to link the provision of healthcare services with payments for those services. Financial institutions across the country have adopted healthcare financial transactions – the integration of banking technology, infrastructure and credit with healthcare administrative operations – to help streamline payment processes, reduce paper-based inefficiencies and improve workflow for their business customers in healthcare.

As featured on HealthcareInfoSecurity.com

Enforcing standards for privacy and security is a major part of a new health information exchange accreditation program, says Lee Barrett, executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission.

As featured in Health Data Management

Financial institutions that transmit or modify protected health information for covered entities, or store or archive PHI now are covered under the HITECH Act’s strengthened provisions of the HIPAA privacy and security rule.

As featured in Healthcare Informatics

Interview: Jan Root, Ph.D., President and CEO, Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) — Healthcare Informatics

HDM Breaking News, February 3, 2011

Banks are angling to use their national transactions networks and portfolio of financial services to win more business in the health care industry.

As featured in For The Record

Health information exchanges (HIEs) are nearly as varied as individual communities within the United States, and they must take into account the number and types of healthcare systems in the geographic area, the prevalence of certain diseases, and the values on which the community places importance, says J. Marc Overhage, MD, PhD, president and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange

As featured in For The Record

The healthcare industry is in the midst of a debate about how best to handle consumer consent concerns in a health information exchange setting.

As featured in CMIO

Recent conversations with several health IT pros have made clearer the EHR connection to HIEs. As one of the features in this Portal indicates, an EHR can expand clinical information exchange throughout an organization, and can bridge gaps in the exchange process, thus paving the way for HIE connections.

As featured in Healthcare It News

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), a nonprofit standards group, is recommending changes in the government's draft rules on health IT certification that EHNAC officials say would make the rules stronger.

As featured in Journal of AHIMA

Health information exchange (HIE) networks have always understood the importance of gaining patient and provider trust. However, beyond describing the privacy and security policies and procedures they establish to protect the information they exchange, they have largely had to ask patients and providers to have faith—faith that those policies and procedures were in place and being followed.

As featured on FierceEMR

June is nearly upon us, and with it comes the anxious last days before HHS finalizes rules for "meaningful use" of health IT and for certification of EMR products. (National health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal is sticking to his promise that everything will be done in late spring, and summer begins June 21.)

As featured on the TAWPI Blog

Standardization of industry practices is critical to the strength of the healthcare market. Lee Barrett, executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) explains:

As featured in Advance for Health Information Professionals

The Cooperative Exchange announced that the National Health Information Network (NHIN) superhighway currently exists through the inter- and intra- connectivity of its member organizations, and electronic health records (EHR) can currently be transferred between providers securely and efficiently.

As featured on the TAWPI Blog

New HIE Accreditation could act as a safety signpost on the healthcare information highway. Lee Barrett, executive directory of the Electronic Healthcare Network Acceditation Commission (EHNAC) explains:
It’s almost impossible to imagine the engineers and architects behind the scenes of highway and road design and construction approaching their jobs without due concern for road-user safety. After all, building a transportation system and ensuring that its users are safe are intrinsically linked. So it is too with the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). With the NHIN taking on more tangible form and function, the realities of enabling health information to be exchanged securely over the Internet take on new significance and dimension. More specifically, there are compelling concerns for the protection of patients whose records are disseminated throughout this electronic super-highway system.

As featured in Government Health IT

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission continues to rollout accreditation programs but is not immediately seeking to become an electronic health records certification body.

As featured in CMIO

Call it a checkup of sorts. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent letters to 31 U.S. hospitals asking about their experiences in implementing health IT under the $19 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Senator said he aims to ensure the “effective and efficient use of taxpayer money” in implementing health IT.

As featured on the TAWPI Blog

As one of the fastest-growing providers of healthcare electronic data interchange, Gateway EDI processes transactions for more than 10,000 medical offices representing 50,000 providers in all 50 states. Gateway EDI also connects to more than 3,000 payers and offers services ranging from standard claims processing and status reports to more advanced capabilities such as technology for flagging rejected claims.

As featured on the TAWPI Blog

By Lee Barrett

As pharmacy continues to play an ever-important role in patient care, pharmacists progressively maintain access to sensitive patient information. Added to this, there is increased incidence of electronic prescribing, at the encouragement of federal agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services. e-Prescribing has even been referred to as the “on-ramp” to the healthcare information highway.

As featured in Health Data Management

For every health information exchange and regional health information organization, there are hard lessons being learned as the initiatives struggle to start operations and grow.