Section0.3 Overview

Section 0 Overview—Laws and Mandates for e-Health- 1

Laws and Mandates for e-Health

This tool includes some of state and federal laws and mandates that guide and support e-health activities. In addition, it includes some laws and mandates that behavioral health providers need to be aware of when planning for e-health

Time needed: 2 hours
Suggested other tools: NA

How to Use

  1. Review the material below to understand laws and mandates that apply to your profession.

Minnesota Laws and Mandates for e-Health

The table below lists the Minnesota mandates for e-health.

See the following discussion of some of the most important points below.

Title / Statute / Resources
Electronic Health Record Technology (2015 Interoperable Electronic Health Record Mandate) / Minnesota Statutes
62J.495 / Minnesota’s 2015 Interoperable EHR Mandate
Electronic Prescription Drug Program / Minnesota Statutes
62J.497 / Electronic Prescribing in Minnesota
Health Information Exchange (HIE) Oversight / Minnesota Statutes
62J.498,62J.4981and62J.4982 / Health Information Exchange Oversight
Minnesota Health Records Act / Minnesota Statutes
144.291through144.298 / Health Records Act Fact Sheet(pdf 44Kb/2 pgs)
Uniform Electronic Transactions & Implementation Guide Standards / Minnesota Statutes
62J.536 / Healthcare Administrative Simplification

The Minnesota Mandate for Interoperable Electronic Health Records

In the table above, there is a link to information about Minnesota’s 2015 Interoperable EHR Mandate. This mandate became law in 2007. The law mandates that all health care providers in the State of Minnesota implement an interoperable electronic health record by January 1, 2015. This mandate extends to behavioral health providers.

The Minnesota Department of Health Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) has developed comprehensive documents that explain the mandate. Read their overview here:

In addition to the overview, OHIT maintains a web page on this topic, which includes Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Read those FAQs here:

One important requirement of the mandate is that the interoperable EHR must be either ONC Certified EHR Technology or Qualified EHR Technology. See below for guidance from OHIT on certified and qualified technology.

Certified EHR

The EHR must be certified by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) pursuant to the Federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. This criterion applies to providers if a certified EHR is available for their setting. This criterion shall be met if a provider is using an EHR that has been certified within the last three years, even if a more current version of the EHR has been certified within the three-year period. A comprehensive list of currently certified EHRs is available at

Qualified EHR

If a provider does not have a certified EHR available for their setting, then the provider must have a qualified EHR. This is an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that includes patient demographic and clinical health information, and has the capacity to:

  • provide clinical decision support;
  • support physician order entry;
  • capture and query information relevant to health care quality; and
  • exchange electronic health information with, and integrate such information from, other sources.

In addition, the e-Health Advisory Committee and MDH encourage providers to have an EHR with the capacity to securely:

  • incorporate clinical lab test results as structured data;
  • support transitions of care, population health and quality improvement; and
  • allow patients or their representatives access to viewonline, download and transmit their health information[1].

Federal Incentives for Meaningful Use

Since 2009, the most important national incentive for e-health has been the HITECH Act, which provides funding for eligible providers and hospitals in the United States to adopt and “meaningfully use” EHRs by 2015. Follow this link to learn more about Meaningful Use (MU): and (

Unfortunately, many behavioral health clinics are not eligible for Meaningful Use incentives. This is because incentives go only to MDs or Advance Practice Registered Nurses like CNSs, Nurse Midwives, or Nurse Practitioners[2]. In some rare cases Physician’s Assistants are eligible.

Laws and Mandates Specifically for Behavioral Health

Other important laws and mandates apply to Behavioral Health professionals.

  • Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and associated rules. (Discussed in the previous section).
  • HIPAA

Everyone has heard of HIPAA, the set of regulations that control access to and privacy controls for health information. This tool kit has a number of tools that help you address privacy and security concerns associated with e-Health. Here is a list of the regulations.

  • Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA), 45 CFR section 164.501
  • Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rule added in 2000[3]
  • Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) Omnibus Final Rule added in 2013 [4]
  • Minnesota Data Privacy Act

Minnesota has additional laws governing data privacy. See link below.

  • Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minnesota Statute Chapter 13 (
  • Additional Regulations affecting those who work with substance abuse.

CFR 42, part 2 requires that clients provide written permission any time any personally identifiable information is released to another party.

  • Title 38 Section 7332 Protections extend to some special types of data: See link here:
  • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) applies to those who work with students and their families. See link here:

Copyright © 2014 Stratis Health.Updated 03-12-14

Section 0 Overview—Laws and Mandates for e-Health - 1

[1]

[2] All these APRNs are eligible only if they serve 30% or more Medicaid clients.

[3] 45 C.F.R. 160 and 164 modifications made for the HIPAA final rule effective March 26, 2013

[4]65 Fed. Reg. 82,474 (Dec. 28, 2000).