MHA Information Technology 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A health system wants to share de-identified data for research. Which HIPAA method allows removal of 18 specific identifiers to achieve de-identification?
- Expert determination method
- Safe Harbor method (Correct answer)
- Minimum necessary standard
- Limited data set method
Correct answer: Safe Harbor method
The HIPAA Safe Harbor method requires removal of all 18 categories of identifiers and no actual knowledge that remaining data could re-identify an individual.
Question 2: Which metric BEST measures the effectiveness of a patient portal implementation in a primary care practice?
- Number of portal logins per month
- Percentage of active patients who have accessed their records at least once (Correct answer)
- Total number of registered portal accounts
- Average page views per portal session
Correct answer: Percentage of active patients who have accessed their records at least once
The percentage of active patients accessing their records reflects meaningful adoption and engagement, not just registration or raw login counts.
Question 3: In healthcare IT, what is the primary function of a Health Information Exchange (HIE)?
- To replace a hospital's EHR system
- To enable the electronic movement of health-related information among organizations within a region or nationally (Correct answer)
- To process insurance claims between payers
- To manage physician credentialing records
Correct answer: To enable the electronic movement of health-related information among organizations within a region or nationally
An HIE facilitates the secure sharing of patient clinical data across organizational boundaries to support coordinated care and reduce redundant testing.
Question 4: A healthcare administrator is evaluating total cost of ownership (TCO) for a new EHR. Which cost category is MOST commonly underestimated during initial budgeting?
- Software licensing fees
- Ongoing training, optimization, and support costs (Correct answer)
- Hardware procurement
- Implementation consulting fees
Correct answer: Ongoing training, optimization, and support costs
Post-go-live training, workflow optimization, and ongoing support consistently represent the largest underestimated costs in EHR TCO analyses.
Question 5: Which approach to IT governance aligns IT strategy with business objectives using a framework developed by ISACA?
- ITIL
- COBIT (Correct answer)
- ISO 27001
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Correct answer: COBIT
COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) is ISACA's framework for IT governance and management aligned with enterprise objectives.
Question 6: What is the key difference between structured and unstructured data in an EHR, and why does it matter for analytics?
- Structured data is encrypted; unstructured data is not
- Structured data (coded fields) is directly queryable for analytics; unstructured data (free text notes) requires NLP to extract insights (Correct answer)
- Structured data is visible to patients; unstructured data is not
- Structured data is stored in the cloud; unstructured data is stored on-premise
Correct answer: Structured data (coded fields) is directly queryable for analytics; unstructured data (free text notes) requires NLP to extract insights
Coded, structured data can be queried with standard SQL or BI tools, while clinical notes require natural language processing (NLP) to extract meaningful information.
Question 7: Under CMS Interoperability and Patient Access rules, what must payers provide to patients through a standardized API?
- Real-time claims adjudication decisions
- Claims and encounter data, clinical data, and formulary information via a FHIR-based Patient Access API (Correct answer)
- Prior authorization approvals in written format
- Explanation of Benefits documents by mail
Correct answer: Claims and encounter data, clinical data, and formulary information via a FHIR-based Patient Access API
The CMS Interoperability Rule requires payers to implement FHIR-based Patient Access APIs giving patients access to their claims, clinical, and formulary data.
MHA Information Technology 5
A health system wants to share de-identified data for research.
Which HIPAA method allows removal of 18 specific identifiers to achieve de-identification?