The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to carve out laboratories and pathologists from a proposed extension of the safe harbor exception for donations of electronic health records (EHRs). In an April 22 letter to HHS, the college urged caution in using the exception to incentivize further interoperability “as the laboratory and pathology communities have seen significant abuses of these exceptions.” The letter was sent in response to proposed rules published in the April 10 Federal Register that would extend the sunset date for EHR exceptions under the Stark law and the anti-kickback safe harbor. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the HHS Office of Inspector General have proposed extending the safe harbor until Dec. 31, 2016. It currently is scheduled to expire at the end of 2013. “The divergence between current laboratory EHR donation practices and those originally contemplated and intended under the safe harbor when established in 2006 is significant,” writes CAP. “It results in negative effects on access to health care services, quality, competition, cost to the federal health care programs and overutilization.” Donated software typically contains several modules that may be customized for the physician…
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