Policy Committee Recommends Multi-Factor Authentication for Stage 3 of Meaningful Use

Stage 3 of the “meaningful use” program should require health care organizations to use multi-factor authentication for remote access to protected electronic health record systems and to verify the identities of system users, an advisory group of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology said Sept. 6.

The Health Information Technology Policy Committee unanimously approved the recommendations for individual-user credentials designed to protect patient health information.

Under the recommendations, anyone accessing or sending patient data from outside a health care organization’s private network or across an unsecured network—such as a wireless connection that is not password protected—would ...