Health IT and ROI (Release of Information) Vendor Sues HHS Over Patient Records Fees

Now here’s one for the ages – a vendor taking HHS head-on. The vendor, CIOX Health, has sued HHS in an effort to stop the agency from enforcing HIPAA rules limiting how much providers and business associates can charge patient records. While the vendor may not get anywhere, the lawsuit raises the important question of what patient record retrieval should cost. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, the suit focuses on changes to the privacy law put into place in 2013 and 2016. The article notes that these modifications broadened the type of information providers and BAs must send while capping the fees vendors could charge for doing so. Specifically, the changes made in 2016 require that vendors that the costs associated with record requests for a reasonable or flat rate of about $6.50. In its complaint, CIOX says the flat fee “was drawn from thin air and bears no rational relationship to the actual costs associated with processing such requests.” It contends that the HIPAA provisions in question established the limits “unlawfully, unreasonably, arbitrarily and capriciously.” It’s hard to tell whether CIOX will get anywhere (though my guess is “not very far”). Government agencies are all but immovable, and HHS particularly so. I appreciate the spunk involved in filing the suit, the premise of which actually sounds reasonable to me, but I think the company has about as much chance of prevailing as a gnat fighting a combine harvester. That being said, I thi...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Health Care Healthcare HealthCare IT HIPAA HIPAA General HIPAA News Business Associates CIOX CIOX Health Health Record Retrieval Fees HHS HIPAA ROI Medical Record R Source Type: blogs