Waltz Comments on Memo Approving Hospitals’ Use of Secure Texting to Communicate Patient Information

Partner Judy Waltz is quoted in a Report on Medicare Compliance article, “Emails Aside, CMS Says Yes to Secure Texting Except for Orders, Consistent with 2016 Memo,” about a Dec. 28, 2017, memo from the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’s Survey & Certification Group approving hospitals’ use of secure texting to communicate patient information, with the exception of doctors’ orders.

Waltz said hospitals are now on notice that state surveyors may look at texting policies and procedures and actual use during their surveys for compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation. She also said hospitals accredited by The Joint Commission will already be aware of these requirements because CMS’s position mirrors the Joint Commission’s.

“What this letter might provide are specific grounds for a complaint survey,” she said. “Someone could call CMS or the state survey agency and say, ‘Dr. Smith is texting all his orders, and the hospital is acting on the texted orders. You need to check it out.’”