I can't imagine piggybacking tax day and Blawg Review. I'm wondering whether Ed. of Blawg Review allows the filing of an extension for Blawg Review? Had I thought about it I might have asked during the late hours of Blawg Review #44.
Now I'm looking forward to Tax Freedom Day on April 26. Great Job Prof. Maule!
How does your daily digital lifestyle stack up against Mr. Gate's lifestyle? An interesting glimpse at how Bill uses technology during his day.
Update: The Wired GC (General Counsel) has an interesting followup post on this article and the new ADT (attention deficit trait) brought on by attending to too much technology input and output.
Shahaid Shah over at The Healthcare IT Guy makes a great argument for increasing the use of RSS technology for health alerts and data sharing of health information. Be sure to check out his article in HealthIT World News, Start Using RSS for Health/Medical Alerts and Data Sharing.
As we move toward the goal of interoperability of health care information RSS should play a part. Using RSS push technology to get needed information quickly and efficiently to the health care provider or other person who has a need to know the information.
My favorite quote from the article:
I think with a little creativity, building in RSS publishers inside our medical devices and health-IT systems such as EMRs and HIS would go a long way towards helping create more interoperable systems. Of course, content and messaging standards such as HL7 would not be replaced but would become the de facto standard of the payloads in the messages that RSS feeds could publish.Tip to Matthew Holt at The Health Care Blog for pointing out the article.
Blawg Review is one! 52 weeks of great law content. A year of great posts from legal bloggers from around the country. Thanks to everyone who took the time and effort to host. Be sure to check out the back issues.
The editor says:
"Back issues—a year's worth. Every issue of Blawg Review is made up of outstanding law blog posts selected by a new host each week and presented in an entertaining overview for everyone interested in law.
Blawg Review is a peer-reviewed blog carnival. Unlike most other blog carnivals, which rely only on submissions of bloggers' posts, Blawg Review is the host's presentation of some of the best law-related posts each week from various sources, including those recommended by readers."
Christina Theilst of Christina's Considerations links to an interesting article, Backing up EHRs, appearing online in Advance for Health Information Professionals.
The article recognizes the importance for hospitals to maintain the continuity fo the electronic health records. As we move down the continuum of conversion from paper to entirely electronic based records the need for maintaining continuity of the legal record becomes more important.
The practical importance of maintaining a legal backup of the EMR is highlights by this quote from the article:
. . . But some hospital executives will find that when an attorney’s release of information (ROI) form lands on their desk, their EMR information will be lacking.Whether the Joint Commission comes calling, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is performing an audit of claims, or payers and the legal community are requesting a hospital to pull records for a specific case, provider organizations should be able to quickly access complete medical records, not just portions of the record, and send them out electronically with little or no administrative burden. . .
In her post Christina states:
Quick announcement to all local Charleston (and West Virginia) blogger readers that CAB 4.0 (Charleston Area Bloggers) is quickly approaching. Version 4.0 will be held on Friday, April 7 @ 12 noon at Rick Lee's Studio on the West Side. Since this 4th monthly event is our first non-morning meeting -- there are no excuses for those CABWCan'tGUITM. I agree with Rick that the previous meetings have been a lot fun!
Directions to CAB4:
BusinessWeek Online has a good commentary article, Dazed and Confused: Data Law Disarray, discussing the current state and practical realities of dealing with privacy and security breaches by businesses.
The article concludes by calling for "uniform federal privacy and data security legislation to create a baseline of privacy protection for consumers and to provide businesses and organizations with a uniform set of standards on which to build their protection practices."
I've assisted clients with weaving though the web of state and federal privacy and data breach reporting requirements and can attest to the "stop light analogy" used in the article.
Below is an excerpt of the stop light analogy from the article:
. . . What now? Who needs to be told? Customers? Government regulators? You call in the lawyers, but they tell you they will need a day or more to figure out what the reporting obligations are.
The lawyers explain that there are more than 20 federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern the reporting obligations, and some are quite different from others. New laws are being passed every month. The lawyers say the road ahead is perilous.
Then they make the traffic signal analogy to help you understand. They tell you to imagine you are driving down the street. At the approaching intersection, instead of just one traffic signal, there are three lights, each with a different instruction.
Should you stop at the red light? Slow down for the yellow light? Proceed under the green light? Needless to say, at this strange intersection, chaos reigns. There are confused drivers, anxious passengers, and angry cops. Here is an accident waiting to happen.
PATCHWORK QUILT. The lawyers' point? On the information superhighway, when it comes to the rules on privacy and data security, businesses are like the confused motorist at the intersection of mixed signals.
In the absence of a uniform federal privacy law, well-intentioned lawmakers and regulators from around the country have, in an episodic manner, created rules to address the growing misuse of personal information and the loss or theft of sensitive data files. The result is a hodgepodge of overlapping, conflicting, and occasionally incomprehensible laws and regulations. . .
Currently, the following live RSS feeds are available on the website:
* Members' News Releases (Senate and House)
* Interim Highlights
* Meeting schedules
* Legislature's newsletter, Wrap-Up
It appears that all of the following are under a single RSS feed (http://www.legis.state.wv.us/RSS/rss.xml). If you don't know much about RSS, its benefits and how to use it -- start by going to the West Virginia Legislature's summary on RSS.
UPDATE: Brian Peterson comments on my find of the new Legislature RSS feed feature and makes recommendations for additional feeds. For example, feeds involving particular bills or bills by suject area. Also, I suggest in his comments that they include feeds based on a particular bill sponsors.
Tricia Herzfeld, an attorney in our firm, prepared the following summary of health care and medical related legislation passing the Senate and the House of Delegates in the 2006 Session and awaiting Governor Manchin's signature. Included are links to the final "enrolled" versions of the bills. If applicable, I have included the date the Governor approved the bill in ( ).
Senate Bill: SB 170 ( Approved by Governor 3/22/06)
Topic: Creating Health Information Network.
Summary: The purpose of the West Virginia Health Information Network is to create a databank of health information for public and private use of health care information. The network would be under the oversight of the Health Care Authority. The Network is designed to alert providers of drug interactions and allergies, provide preventative medicine alerts, allow electronic access to results of laboratory results, transfer medical information among providers (with patient consent), track patient history and prescriptions, and track public health statistics, among many other envisioned uses.
Senate Bill: SB 212
Topic: Continuing the Board of Dental Examiners.
Summary: The West Virginia Board of Dental Examiners would be continued until July 1, 2008.
Senate Bill: SB 217
Topic: Continuing the Board of Osteopathy.
Summary: The West Virginia Board Osteopathy would be continued until July 1, 2016.
Senate Bill: SB 223
Topic: Relating to the Examination of Insurance
and Health Care Entities.
Summary: This Bill reenacts previous legislation and amends it to extend many procedural report filing deadlines from ten to thirty days. This Bill also amends the previous legislation by requiring that health care corporations, organizations and providers be examined once every five years, as opposed to the current law which requires examination every year.
Senate Bill: SB 454 (Approved by Governor 3/6/06)
Topic: Removing Insurance Commissioner as health maintenance organizations’ attorney for service of process purposes.
Summary: The previously enacted legislation relating to the process by which one must obtain a certificate of authority to operate a health care facility, was renewed and amended to remove the Insurance Commissioner for service of process purposes.
Senate Bill: SB 463 (Approved by Governor 3/22/06)
Topic: Modifying Qualifications for License to Practice Medicine.
Summary: This Bill reenacts previous legislation regarding the qualifications for a license to practice medicine within the state. This Bill also amends the previous legislation by expanding the criteria by which an applicant for licensure may extend the seven year period to obtain a passing score on the medical examination an additional three years and amends it to include participating in an accredited fellowship training. Previously the only way to get the three year extension was if a student was enrolled in a dual MD-PhD program.
Senate Bill: SB 554 (Approved by Governor 3/31/06)
Topic: Clarifying Use of Forensic Medical Examination Fund
for certain nurses training.
Summary: This Bill clarifies that the Prosecuting Attorneys Association can use money from the Forensic Medical Examination Fund to pay to properly train nurses to examine victims of sexual assault.
Senate Bill: SB 619 (Approved by Governor 3/23/06)
Topic: Relating to Physicians’ Mutual Insurance Company
Board Member’s Term.
Summary: This Bill reenacts previous legislation relating to the organization and governance of the West Virginia Physician’s Mutual Company. It also removes term limits for its Board of Directors.
Senate Bill: SB 755
Topic: Relating to Physicians’ Mutual Insurance Company.
Summary: This Bill reenacts the previous legislation regarding specific coverage guidelines for Physicians’ Mutual Insurance Company. This Bill also amends the previous legislation to clarify the ability of the Mutual to decline or refuse to renew insurance policies transferred to it from the Board of Risk and Insurance Management when those policies expire. Other amendments include various insurance coverage criteria as well as establishing minimum standards and requirements for physician self-insurance arrangements to qualify as medical professional liability insurance for purposes of the Medical Professional Liability Act.
House Bill: HB 2548
Topic: The Diabetes Care Plan Act.
Summary: This Bill requires the establishment of individual diabetes care plans for students with diabetes by each county’s boards of education. The State Board of Education would also be responsible for adopting guidelines for the development and implementation of the individual diabetes plans.
House Bill: HB 4021
Topic: Relating to a pilot program authorizing participating health care clinics and private medical practitioners to provide primary and preventative health services for a prepaid fee.
Summary: This Bill establishes a low cost insurance health plan for uninsured workers. It also establishes, for rural areas, primary care in a prepaid, clinic based setting. This Bill also expands coverage for uninsured children under the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIPS) and establishes an Interagency Health Council to study and create a plan to offer universal health care coverage to all West Virginians. It also creates a reporting requirement for the Department of Health and Human Services to report on the costs shifted to private insurers as a result of Medicaid’s regular underpayment for medical services.
House Bill: HB 4069 (Approved by Governor 3/16/06)
Topic: Continuing the Rural Health Advisory panel.
Summary: This Bill continues the Rural Health Advisory Panel
until July 1, 2009.
House Bill: HB 4108 (Approved by Governor 3/31/06)
Topic: Allowing an osteopathic physician and surgeon to supervise up to three physician assistants generally.
Summary: This Bill reenacts previous legislation and amends it to allow osteopathic physicians and surgeons to generally supervise three (previously two) physician assistants.
House Bill: HB 4383
Topic: Continuing the pilot program offered through a Community Access Program to coordinate health care provider reimbursements indefinitely as determined by the insurance commissioner.
Summary: This Bill continues the pilot program offered through a Community Access program until July 1, 2007.
House Bill: HB 4488
Topic: Creating a commission to complete a comprehensive study of the state’s behavioral health system.
Summary: This Bill mandates a study of West Virginia’s behavioral health system, by creating a commission comprised of public and private citizens, and an advisory board to establish the parameters of the study and to give periodic reports of its progress and findings to the government.
House Bill: HB 4661
Topic: Continuing the Board of Registered Professional Nurses rule relating to dialysis technicians.
Summary: This Bill reenacts the previous legislation and continues the Board of Registered Professional Nurses’ emergency rule relating regarding “Dialysis Technicians” until July 1, 2007.
House Bill: HB 4685
Topic: Arthritis Prevention Education Act.
Summary: This Bill establishes an arthritis prevention and education treatment program, requires the Bureau of Public Health to establish strategies to promote and maintain such as program, and creates a council on arthritis.
House Bill: HB 4854
Topic: Expert opinions of licensed psychologists in the treatment and evaluation of children and taking testimony of child witnesses.
Summary: This Bill reenacts and amends the previous legislation dealing with the taking of testimony of a child witness by closed circuit television. It requires that a psychiatrist, licensed psychologist with at least five years of significant clinical experience treating children, or a licensed clinical social worker with five years of significant clinical experience treating children, act as a “friend of the court” in determining whether a child is emotionally able to testify in a court proceeding via closed circuit television.
