Home Forums Discussions Meaningful Use mu 14

I am trying to send "Free" Updox secure E mail to one of my collegue, however it keeps on telling me that " this record does not match your patient in EMR" and it does not send data or file.
Any solutions?
I have not attached AC to updox when I signed up. Was I supposed to?
Do I have to show secure E mail stuff now? or I can do it in Jan 2012 and still apply for MU money from CMS?
Thanks in advance.
Riten.

Another question. If you don't have Updox or similar, how do you satisfy the meaningless use requirement to send electronic health information to another provider. I'm not sure if it states "send it in a HIPAA compliant method". If not, could you just email a fictitious patient summary to another provider?

Thanks for any help,
Donald Phillips MD Cedar Hill, Texas

The requirement of this measure is to "Perform at least one test of certified EHR technology?s capacity to electronically exchange key clinical information."

To meet this requirement the State of Maine Regional Extension Center asked us to print a CCD on a real patient. Then we emailed the CCD to the Maine REC. They sent a confirmatory written letter stating they had successfully received key clinical information from my office. This serves as proof that I met the measure of the requirement in the event of a CMS audit.

CMS goes on to say:
"Exchange ? Clinical information must be sent between different legal entities with distinct certified EHR technology and not between organizations that share a certified EHR technology. Distinct certified EHR technologies are those that can achieve certification and operate independently of other certified EHR technologies. The exchange of information requires that the eligible professional must use the standards of certified EHR technology as specified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, not the capabilities of uncertified or other vendor-specific alternative methods for exchanging clinical information."

So I interpret this as saying you must produce the information using your EHR (thus the CCD), and you must send it to another entity who does not share Amazing Charts.

Finally this was stated and seems worth mentioning:
"Patient Authorized Entities ? Any individual or organization to which the patient has granted access to
their clinical information. Examples would include an insurance company that covers the patient, an
entity facilitating health information exchange among providers, or a personal health record vendor
identified by the patient. A patient would have to affirmatively grant access to these entities."

This information comes from THIS CMS official slide-show.

First blush the looking at the verbiage: I believe the key appears to be SHARING the same EMR (such as Kaiser does, or some hospitals with outpatient practices do with EPIC) as opposed to merely having the same software. I share my AC only with my partner. We are the same legal entity. However, Dan, accross town, is a different legal entity using his own certified EHR technology that operates independently of mine.
Maye just hopeful, but I read it tthat way.

Roger,
I agree. A quote from the CMS description of the measure: "Instances of certified EHR technology can be from the same vendor and still be considered distinct."

We satisfied the measure by having a provider in another practice (who also uses AC) send me a CCD of a test patient. I sent another one to her, and we both met the measure.

Thanks Jon, I had not done any due diligence, just spouting off.

And to come back to Donald's original question:
I don't see where CMS specifically addresses the issue of using a fictitious summary, but they do say "If the test involves the transmission of actual patient information..." so my best guess is that it is fine.
They do address how you can send it, and they say "any means of electronic transmission according to any transport standard(s) (SMTP, FTP, REST, SOAP, etc.)". I.e., email is fine.

So create a test CCD on a test patient, email the CCD to another provider, and have them send you an email backing confirming that you received it electronically.

Thanks for all the help above. I thought email might be a possibility but then I saw other security threads where email does not meet HIPAA so ? going in circles. This is so much fun.

Donald Phillips MD
Cedar Hill, TX

It could be secure assuming you have either hosted encryption or encrypt the file prior to sending. You'd have to call and tell them the password or supply them with a key file for the latter choice. Another problem with the latter choice is a lot of people don't know how to open the files. Usually you need some sort of software like AxCrpyt, TruCrypt, or 7-Zip (AES 256 Bit) to decrypt the files. It still surprises me that many people still don't know what a zip file is, but whatever... However it won't really help since the requirement adds this clause: "...not the capabilities of uncertified or other vendor-specific alternative methods for exchanging clinical information."

Hi Sologi, I just saw this post today. Have you figured out how to send the CCD/CCR to another provider? The free account does provide this ability. Let me know if not, would be happy to provide assistance.