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• ONC names first certifiers of EHR systems and technology

  The Chicago-based Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI) of Austin, TX are the first official certifiers of EHR technology, HHS announced August 30.

• Residents make list of most stressful jobs

  Medical interns made the list of the Christian Science Monitor’s list of the top five stressful jobs. According to the paper, medical interns have the fifth most stressful job due to long hours, difficult work, and low pay. Other jobs on the list include inner city high school teachers, miners, and police officers.
  
  For more, visit Christian Science Monitor.

• HIPAA Revisited for Medical Staffs

  In this week’s column, Anne Buss, CPMSM, CPCS discusses the need for HIPAA orientations.

• Hospitalists pay for themselves at teaching hospitals

  A hospitalist program can be cost-effective at public teaching hospitals, according to a new study.

• What makes a medical witness an expert in the court’s eye

  Although the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that practitioners from different specialties can provide testimony if they perform the same procedure in Spradling v. SSM Health Care St. Louis, that’s not always the way courts see it.
  
  Take, for example, the case Woodard v. Custer, M.D.; Lipscomb, M.D. et al. v. University of Michigan Medical Center; and Shirley Hamilton et al., v. Killligowski, D.O., 719 NW 2d 842 (Mich. 2006). The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that expert witnesses should practice the same specialty and subspecialty as the person about whom the witness is testifying. (Access the entire ruling at http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/).

• CMS proceeds with documentation 2.9% payment cut in FY 2011 IPPS final rule

  On July 30, CMS issued the inpatient prospective payment system final rule to update policies and rates for fiscal year (FY) 2011, which maintains long-standing CMS policy and implements some provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). CMS updated acute care hospital rates by 2.35%. This update reflects a market basket increase of 2.6% for inflation, which is a slight increase over the FY 2010 inflation rate. The final rule reduces the 2.6% inflation update by 0.25%, as required by PPACA.