Personal Health Records

The law requires patients have access to their medical records in a timely fashion and at a nominal fee. Is your practice in a position to comply?

Unfortunately, it only really works for children.  

Parsing out the various terms used in relation to a patient’s health record can be daunting. Here’s a primer to make the process less intimidating

A trend to watch: Last year, two states made significant changes to laws related to personally identifiable information and protected health information.

Blockchain is one of the hottest words in cybersecurity. Best to know what it is.

Regardless of the level of technology available, paper still matters in healthcare.

Healthcare data is a huge target for hackers. If a practice is reactionary, all of their hard work could be at risk.

Here are some of the important legal areas to keep an eye on in health care during 2018.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is something many patients struggle with during the holidays, Kris Kringle included.

This year's HIPAA settlements ran the monetary gamut and included the first ever fine levied due to untimely breach reporting. Here's an overview.

Natural disasters can often lead to data breach, here's what you need to know to prevent a breach at your practice.

Activity trackers can provide users with statistics on how active they have been, but the devices are too unreliable to help a physician in an exam room.

This physician has a clever way to ensure nobody can gain access to the files on his computer.

Physician ponders why healthcare doesn't adopt technology and processes that other industries use on a daily basis.

A lot can be learned from recent HIPAA violations, including how to avoid them at your practice.

Healthcare organizations are perfect candidates for cyber-attacks, practices need to step-up and meet protection challenges.

Also in this week's Practice Notes: President Trump launches opioid epidemic committee, while proposing budget cuts to mental health services.

Healthcare cyberattacks can put your patients and medical practice at risk. The good news is there are both high-tech and no-tech means to be safe.

New guidance from HHS’ Office of Civil Rights has not only clarified patients’ rights to request a medical record, but also what practices can charge.

Providing your patients with useful clinical summaries to meet meaningful-use requirements might be trickier than you expect.

The Stage 2 rules of meaningful use call for a security risk analysis of your practice. Here are some common sources of data loss to examine.

When it comes to digital health records, electronic silos are no better than paper silos.

What tech tools are other practices using? What would they pass up if they had a do-over? Help us to help you find out by completing our 2013 Technology Survey.

Do you know what a PHR is? Hint: It's not another term for an EHR. A personal health record is patient-facing and patients are increasingly coming to expect it. Here's what you need to know about how these tools can help you engage patients in their own care.

Study of 1,100 U.S. patients revealed the majority love using technology to improve their own health and connect with doctors.

Patient-physician phone tag driving you nuts? Here’s how to make secure e-mail messaging work for your practice.

Patient portals can offer better customer service and care, but only if you can get your patients to use it. We examine the pros and cons of jumping on the portal bandwagon.

You can’t make the medical home model work on a practical basis without technology. But how to know what widgets are essential? Here’s your guide to the must-have technologies for your medical home practice.