Fake Meaningful Use May Cost EHR $1 Billion In Lawsuits
An estate of a cancer patient, Stjepan Tot, filed a class-action lawsuit against eClinicalWorks. The estate maintains the patient could not refer to earlier cancer symptoms due to faulty meaningful use software.
eClinicalWorks is hit with a class-action lawsuit since the patients can no longer trust the accuracy of their medical records. The lawsuit point towards the flaws in the software clearly, defying the meaningful use core objectives.
Lawsuit Adds to eClinicalWorks Financial Struggles
eClinicalWorks had to deal with a huge settlement claim of $155 million only six months ago. The False Claim Act alleged that eClinicalWorks incentivized its customers to promote its products.
Details of the $1 Billion Lawsuit Against EHR Vendor
Kristina Tot, who represents Stjepan Tot estate, filed the lawsuit in New York’s Southern District. She claimed $999 million in monetary damages for gross negligence. Furthermore, the lawsuit also states that Stjepan Tot died because of cancer.
He could not search his electronic medical records to ascertain when he was first diagnosed with cancer. As there was no accuracy in the display of the medical records.
The lawsuit also alleges that millions of patients relying on eClinicalWorks cannot sort out their medical history. Thus, the software provided by eClinicalWorks fails to meet the meaningful use core objectives. Therefore, eClinicalWorks software does not meet the necessary requirements.
eClinicalWorks Lawsuit Reminds of the Report by HHS-OIG
The US Department of Health and Human Services or HHS-OIG released a report this June. The report samples 100 electronic health record providers getting payments from CMS for meaningful use. This report points to the failure of meeting meaningful use requirements of these health care providers, using incentive payments to the tune of $729 million. HHS-OIG found many of these healthcare providers not qualifying for these meaningful use incentives.
Large Scale Implications of eClinicalWorks Lawsuit
This lawsuit would have widespread implications for eClinicalWorks customers. The lawsuit indicates over 850,000 health service providers relying on this software. These new findings clearly reflect the need for better checks on software development companies offering health care provides with the EHR software.
I am agreed with the beneficial use of EHR for electronic record keeping but cases just like those mentioned above strictly call for better healthcare IT solutions. Only then, we can rely on such technologies without any fear.