The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services clarified its position on texting in a new memo to state surveyors this week, noting that while texting physician orders is still prohibited, exchanging patient information on a secure platform is permitted.
The clarification comes weeks after the Report on Medicare Compliance, a newsletter distributed by the Health Care Compliance Association, reported that at least two hospitals received emails from CMS that said texting of any kind is prohibited. That shift came as a surprise to attorneys at Hall Render, who outlined several approaches for hospitals in the process of acquiring a secure messaging platform.
