What’s in Your EHR?
Lawsuits will happen. Deals will be made behind the scenes without anyone admitting guilt. I have seen it for years. In 2017, eClinicalWorks and some of its employees were ordered to pay $155 million for allegedly falsely obtaining certification for its EHR software. Now, we have this:
Practice Fusion, an electronic health records vendor acquired by Allscripts Healthcare Solutions last year, has received a grand jury subpoena as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Allscripts disclosed the subpoena in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week.
The subpoena, which Practice Fusion received in March, relates to “certain business practices engaged in by Practice Fusion,” according to the filing, including the company’s compliance with the anti-kickback statute and HIPAA. The investigation also concerns how the vendor obtained software certification under the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s health IT certification program.
I have no idea what these HIPAA, anti-kickback, or certain business practices were but I remember Practice Fusion being free and docs signing up for it when they decided to go independent. Allscripts now owns them. So….you know who has money to easily pay for any damages? Allscripts. You know who does NOT have money to pay for HIPAA or kickback damages? The doctors who took the deal (if that becomes an issue). Now, let me be clear, I have no information saying they are going after the doctors but if they did, who would protect them? Not their malpractice insurer.
The lesson, in my humble opinion, is not to take any deal that seems to good to be true. Just saying.
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This is very concerning. Practice Fusion started charging a monthly fee when Allscripts acquired them to “improve the software”. I can’t wait to hear the outcome of this suit. The burden of EHRs is already daunting, but when you can’t trust the vendor to follow standard practices and cause doctors to unwittingly become involved in HIPPA & regulatory violations, I won’t be surprised when doctors are pulled into the suits.
Paper.
EHRs are a dangerous racket. No good will come of them.