In light of eClinicalWorks' recent settlement with the Department of Justice, the HHS Office of Inspector General released a YouTube video titled "Eye on Oversight — Electronic Health Records" July 26.
Under the settlement, eClinicalWorks — along with several of its executives and employees — agreed to pay $155 million in May to resolve allegations the company violated the False Claims Act. The government alleged eClinicalWorks withheld information from its certifying entity, including information on how its software reportedly wasn't able to meet certain criteria for standardized drug codes, according to DOJ officials.
In the YouTube video, HHS OIG stressed accurate patient records are the "foundation of providing quality healthcare to patients." Senior Counsel John O'Brien noted: "This settlement is important because it's the first settlement with an electronic health records software company, so we're entering an entire new area of healthcare fraud."
"The message OIG wants to send to the healthcare community is that we take the certification process for EHR software very seriously," Mr. O'Brien said. "There is no room for manipulating this process and making false statements during the certification process."
Click here to view the full video.