Your friendly neighborhood drug store--OK, more like the corporate colossus that runs it--is under investigation again. CVS Caremark Corp. announced yesterday that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the company's business practices, according to the Associated Press, but spokespeople did not ...

From a press release from MD-IT, one of the charter members of the Medical Transcription Service Consortium, with some interesting tidbits highlighted:

The Medical Transcription Service Consortium (MTSC) - formed by ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon Business, and the Medical Transcription Industry Association ...

In a move reported by Reuters and other sources, a newly formed industry group called the Medical Transcription Service Consortium has announced plans to create "a new IT platform for the secure exchange of digitized transcriptions of physician-dictated patient notes." Creation of the MTSC ...

(Editor's note: The following blog was written by Mark McGraw, an associate editor on staff at ADVANCE.)

It's movie night, and you're not interested in subtitles or surrealism.

Maybe next week you'll go for the one with the "Winner: Best Foreign Language Film, 2008 Venice Film Festival" sticker on it. But tonight you're in the mood for a poorly acted and painfully predictable slasher ...

From Na Vijayashankar ("Naavi") at www.naavi.org comes a strong response to the Indian black market medical records scandal in general and ...

I have been trying to get the flu shot for the last few weeks. As you know from watching the news, the flu shot is in short supply. After my third attempt, the nurse practitioner promised to call me as soon as a new shipment arrived. I thought with all the overly anxious people walking in to get the shot, the last thing she would want to do is call one of us. 

Well, much to my surprise, she called ...

All of the Halloween costumes and decorations this week, especially the graveyards and skeletons, provoked a memory from ACE a few months ago. One of the presenters, Mike Tabor, DDS, showed photos and mentioned some fascinating information about The Body Farm in Tennessee and pointed out books by physicians involved with this project. Up until then I thought the books with that title were purely fiction!  ...

If you've been following Jay's blog, "XY Files in and MT World," recently, you know there have been some frightening reports of medical records being sold overseas. It's enough to make you hunker down in the States and demand your records stay local.

On the contrary, some patients are ditching domestic services and seeking medical care ...

From PRNewswire.com comes a press release from Webmedx, fourth-largest U.S. medical transcription service provider:

Atlanta-based Webmedx, the fourth largest medical transcription company ...

The introductory course I teach in health information technology (HIT) gives students the basics on health information. This week I did a lecture on the diversity of career options available in HIT. Students coming into the program are usually familiar with coding and transcription, but they are not familiar with other positions within HIM. They were surprised to learn their options include compliance, ...

164.312 Technical safeguards:

A CE must, in accordance with the general rule:

(a) Standard: Access control. Implement technical policies and procedures for electronic information systems that maintain ePHI to allow access only to those persons or software programs that ...

October is National Poppin' Popcorn Month, so naturally a few of us at the office decided to celebrate with a culinary nod to those explosive kernels. I went the semi-homemade route, popping a bag and mixing it up with marshmallows, chocolate chips, raisins and sliced almonds to make a sticky trail mix bar. Not my best creation.

I like to cook--no, I like to bake. Birthday cakes, cookies, brownies, no problem. ...

Everyone's sick of swine flu (pun not intended, I swear), so apologies in advance for striking up yet another conversation about it, but I couldn't help posting when I heard about post-vaccine monitoring.

What? What's that you say? Monitoring? As in data, systems and overall management ...

I am just getting back from the PA-AHDI Educational Conference in Lancaster, PA. What a great meeting! We had more than 100 attendees from 12 states, a dozen exhibitors, and four generous sponsors. It was apparent that attendees, exhibitors and speakers were eager to share, educate, network and have fun in the process.

While much of our business, continuing education and even socializing can be done electronically ...

From the Nation News in Barbados:

The majority of Barbadian workers who underwent one year of Government-sponsored training in the medical transcription field, were put on the breadline because they were performing below the required standard of work.

So said Robert Harvey, ...

From Reuters comes word of a new survey of health information technology professionals that paints a sobering portrait of the state of health information security here in the U.S.:

According to the October 2009 Ponemon report, Electronic Health Information at Risk: A ...

According to articles in The Economic Times and The ...

There has been so much attention on the H1N1 flu in my kid's school district. My daughter's middle school has reported two confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu, and there have been a tremendous number of kids out with flu-like symptoms. My daughter missed 2.5 days of school with flu-like symptoms. Schools are asking that children and teachers stay home if they are running a fever or have flu-like symptoms. Hand ...

There was a very good turnout for the webinar, over 160 attendees, I'm told. There were a number of questions asked, and my answers appear below. The entire presentation can be accessed free of charge at this link. Please feel free to post any comments or questions here.

Q: Would you recommend ...

I have been spending a lot of time babysitting our 10-month-old grandson. Suffice it to say I enjoy this immensely but my energy certainly isn't what it was when his father was this age!

One day it dawned on me that the baby's early attempts to learn the English languageare similar to learning medical terminology. I currently teach Advanced Medical Terminology at a local community college. Some days I literally ...

On Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT, I'll be one of the presenters at a free webinar hosted by FierceEMR editor Neil Versel entitled Evolving Medical Transcription: Technology's impact on traditional transcription processes.  Other presenters will include:

Mary Pat Whaley, Practice Administrator at Halifax Regional Medical Center and Editor at Manage My Practice.com. Whaley ...

My daughter transferred to a new school this year. She had no interest in transferring to this school, but like all parents I overruled her objections so she can be prepared to compete in the highly competitive world we live in. 

The curriculum at the new school is extremely challenging. My daughter has homework every day, including weekends. She is often up late during the week completing ...

Quoting from HIPAA Regulation: §164.312

A covered entity must, in accordance with §164.306:

(a) (1) Standard: Facility access controls. Implement policies ...