AHIMA expressed its support for lifting a ban on using federal funding to establish a national patient identifier, which got a boost late Wednesday after the House advanced an amendment to remove the ban. "Removal of this ban will empower HHS (the Department of Health and Human Services) to explore a full range of patient matching solutions and enable it to work with the private sector to identify solutions that protect patient privacy and are cost-effective, scalable, and secure," according to a statement released by AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris.

A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine based on EHR data from 170,332 encounters and interviews with 40 physicians found that variations in clinical documentation in EHRs could result in patient harm and clinical inefficiencies. Researchers suggest conducting user training during the implementation of EHR systems and setting up practice meetings for standardized documentation.

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization Program Office was created by the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments to act as the arbiter for future EHR decisions. "FEHRM leaders will have the authority to direct each department to execute joint decisions for technical, programmatic and functional functions under its purview and will provide oversight regarding required funding and policy as necessary," said Lauren Thompson, director of the VA and DOD's Interagency Program Office.

Ullico subsidiary Union Labor Life Insurance notified 87,400 patients about an email phishing attack that may have exposed their names, personal health information of plan members and their family members, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, among other information. Meanwhile, the information of 978 patients at Michigan's Mercy Health may have been compromised because of a server misconfiguration, and a webpage misconfiguration at one of Delta Health Systems' business associates may have exposed the information of an undisclosed number of California water utility company employees.

There are five ways covered entities and business associates can be compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, according to consultant Adam Greene. His suggestions include developing a risk analysis and management process and identifying key areas of the HIPAA security rule.

CyberMDX researchers have found that Becton Dickinson's Alaris Gateway Workstation infusion pump could be remotely controlled by installing malicious firmware on its onboard computer, and its monitoring and configuration interfaces could also be accessed by an attacker via a web browser. The device manufacturer has advised pump owners to update the devices with the latest firmware, which comes with fixes for the two vulnerabilities.

Ransomware attacks rose 167% in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to a report from Cybersecurity Threatscape. Hacktivism, or good-hat hacking, makes up 15% of cyberhacks, and cryptojacking has fallen significantly.

A pilot program by the FDA, authorized under the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act, will explore bolstering prescription-drug supply and distribution security with the use of blockchain technology. Merck, Walmart and IBM have been selected to participate in the program.

A study of 314 adults with metabolic syndrome found that those who participated in a telemonitoring-supported physical activity program experienced a significant reduction in mean metabolic syndrome Z-score, a measure of severity, six months after the intervention, compared with a control group of patients on a waiting list for the program. The findings were published in The Lancet Public Health.

Advanced ICU Care CEO Lou Silverman said telehealth has an important and growing role in health care and the delineation between in-person care and virtual care is disappearing, even in critical care settings. "The greatest successes occur when workflows and patient engagement are built around the unique attributes of a specific telemedicine specialty rather than focused on importing bedside traditions into the telemedicine environment," Silverman said.

To create this list of six HIM jobs of the future, the Journal consulted AHIMA subject matter experts about trends they are seeing in the field and compared this insight with HIM-related jobs currently available on job search sites.

The AHIMA Foundation's Health Information Relief Operation (HIRO) Fund was established to assist communities of health information professionals whose personal or professional lives have been severely disrupted by a natural or man-made disaster. As we enter the season of severe summer weather, consider making a donation to support the fund. Learn more.