Becker's Hospital Review

71 CIO / HEALTH IT CIOX Health Sues HHS Over 'Irrational' HIPAA Enforcement By Julie Spitzer C IOX Health filed a lawsuit Jan. 8 against HHS and then Acting Secre- tary Eric Hargan in an effort to stop the agency from enforcing parts of HIPAA it deems "unlawfully, unreasonably, arbitrarily and capriciously" limit the fees providers and their business associates can charge, according to court documents reviewed by Becker's Hos- pital Review. CIOX Health, a medical records manage- ment company, specifically targets regulatory changes to the privacy law implemented in 2013 and 2016. ose modifications broad- ened the type of patient information that must be sent, but put a cap on the fees ven- dors could charge for the added work. Specifically, the 2013 HIPAA update expand- ed the type of medical information that could be sent, even if that data wasn't in the EHR. e modification, though, failed to discuss the costs associated with the data's collection and transmission, and HHS acknowledged this update pushed beyond the regulatory language of the Health Information Technol- ogy for Economic and Clinical Health Act, according to the lawsuit. However, when the law was changed again in 2016, HHS required vendors to limit the costs associated with all record requests to a rea- sonable or flat rate of about $6.50. CIOX al- leges this flat fee is arbitrary to HIPAA's orig- inal intent and potentially hurt its business. "A $6.50 flat fee … was drawn from thin air and bears no rational relationship to the ac- tual costs associated with processing such re- quests," CIOX alleges in its complaint. ough the vendor claims it supports basic HIPAA rules, including patient access to their records, the lawsuit asks the court to strike the 2013 and 2016 modifications. "HHS's continued application and enforce- ment of these rules impose tremendous fi- nancial and regulatory burdens on healthcare providers and threatens to upend the medical records industry that services them," CIOX claims, according to the suit. CIOX told Becker's Hospital Review part of the company's motives for bringing the suit, stating, "e long-term viability of the medi- cal-records industry is critical to the delivery of high-quality, error-free and cost-effective healthcare services to patients by ensuring that healthcare providers have timely access to individual medical records." In November 2017, CIOX was named in a False Claims Act lawsuit that accused 69 In- diana hospitals of overcharging patients for their medical records. "CIOX routinely and repeatedly engaged in a practice, policy and/ or scheme to illegally and fraudulently over- bill patients for the provision of medical re- cords," that complaint reads. CIOX claims to process "tens of millions" of medical records requests each year, and its website asserts that it serves "three out of five hospitals and more than 16,000 physician practices" throughout the 50 states. n Intermountain's Precision Genomics Arm Begins Tests to Identify Hereditary Cancer Genes By Jessica Kim Cohen S alt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare plans to offer hereditary cancer gene panels through the Intermountain Precision Genomics Core Laboratory in St. George, Utah, the health system announced Feb. 1. Intermountain Precision Genomics has developed and launched several tests to identify genetic variants associated with heredi- tary cancers. Recent research has suggested an unmet need for genetic tests to screen women with a family history of breast and ovarian cancers, according to Amber Guidry, PhD, a scientist at Intermountain Precision Genomics. Dr. Guidry's work focuses on validating clinical genomics tests to detect the presence of mutations in genes passed from one generation to the next. Intermountain Healthcare's cancer genetic counseling services works to identify and educate patients with a history of cancer to reduce their risk of developing the disease. Brent Hafen, who directs cancer genetic counseling for Inter- mountain Healthcare, explained, "Genetic counseling in associ- ation with genetic testing allows individuals with an increased cancer risk to obtain more frequent screenings at younger ages leading to earlier detection and treatment of many cancers." n Emory Researchers Use AI to Predict Sepsis Onset in ICUs By Jessica Kim Cohen A team of researchers from Atlanta-based Emory University developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to predict a patient's likelihood of developing sepsis in real-time, according to a study published in the journal Critical Care Medicine. To create the algorithm, the researchers considered vital sign and EMR data from 27,000 intensive care unit admissions at two Emory University hospitals. The algorithm analyzes 65 key variables to predict a patient's likelihood of developing sepsis after 12, eight, six and four hours. The researchers validated the algorithm with data from 42,000 patients held in the publicly available Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-III ICU database. Although the study authors acknowledged a pro- spective study is needed to determine the clinical utility of the prediction model, they concluded, "Us- ing data available in the ICU in real-time, [the algo- rithm] can accurately predict the onset of sepsis in an ICU patient four to 12 hours prior to clinical rec- ognition." n

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