Tag: HHS

HHS Provides New Resources to Address Rising Threat of Cyberattacks in Health

Resources include a new platform, Knowledge on Demand, to provide free cybersecurity training to the health sector workforce as well as an updated Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices 2023 Edition and a Hospital Cyber Resiliency Initiative Landscape Analysis On April 17, 2023, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 405(d) Program announced the release…

ONC’s Annual Report to Congress Identifies Lack of Post-Acute, Hospice Interoperability as among “Barriers to Progress”

In recent weeks the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued its 2022 Report to Congress, which provides an update on the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information.  The report is an annual requirement enacted as part of the HITECH Act requiring…

HHS Makes Ownership Data for Medicare-Certified Hospice and HHAs Publicly Available

On April 20, 2023, in support of President Biden’s Executive Order on promoting competitiony, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies. For the first time, anyone can now review detailed information on the ownership of more than 6,000 hospices and 11,000 home…

OCR Announces Expiration of HIPAA Enforcement Discretion Issued in Response to COVID-19

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Federal Register notice that the enforcement discretion of certain rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act will expire on May 11, 2023 with the end of the COVID-19 public health…

World Health Day: Health Care Jobs are the Future

In honor of World Health Day 2023, which is today, April 7, the Department of Health & Human Services has released information about the projected growth in jobs in the health care sector of the U.S. economy. Overall employment in health care occupations is projected to grow 13 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the…

HHS Releases New Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced on Wednesday, March 8, the release of the Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide, which provides specific steps that health care organizations can take immediately to manage cyber risks to their information technology systems. This cybersecurity implementation guide provides recommendations, best practices, and resources to help the public and…

Hospice Survey Process Revised

The long-awaited revised hospice survey process is now available via a recent Quality, Safety & Oversight (QSO) Group memo, QSO-23-08-HOSPICE. The memo updates Appendix M of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) State Operations Manual which lays out the hospice survey process and the interpretive guidelines surveyors use to assess a hospice’s compliance…

CMS Proposes Electronic Standards for Clinical, Admin Data

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a proposed rule titled Administrative Simplification: Adoption of Standards for Health Care Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures, and Modification to Referral Certification and Authorization Transaction Standard The rule would adopt a set of standards for the electronic exchange of clinical and administrative data to support…

COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Extended Again

The Biden administration has renewed the Public Health Emergency (PHE) that has been in effect since January 27, 2020 due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released the following statement on January 11, 2023: As a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)  pandemic, on…

NAHC Submits Comments on National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Community Living (ACL) released the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers.  The strategy is intended to serve as a national roadmap for better recognizing and supporting family and kinship caregivers of all ages, backgrounds, and caregiving situations. ALC opened the strategy for public comments,…