Maintaining good documentation in your files is essential because CMS audits are not going away and most likely will occur more often in 2013. What types of audits could a company expect from CMS? Diagnostic coding Utilization review Prospective audit Retrospective Audit While none of the audits is less important, the pre-payment review ...

In an April 20 press release, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) announced that it discovered a breach of patient information, which resulted when a document sent to an individual outside of UAMS for analysis of billing charges was not properly de-identified. A UAMS physician sent financial data to an individual who was not ...

Rite Aid Corp. and its 40 affiliated entities have agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. In a coordinated action, the company also signed a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to settle potential violations of ...

(Editor's Note: This guest blog is written by Matthew T. Patton (mpatton@advanceweb.com), editor of ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals.) Wall Street failures. The housing market and mortgage industry collapse. The epic, disastrous BP oil spill. Huge mistakes with dire consequences for a large chunk of the global population. How can ...

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) submitted comments this week to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in response to the request for information, ''HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosures Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; Request for ...

With all the recent talk about privacy and security changes in the HITECH Act, you'd think: 1) People would finally learn it's spelled ''HIPAA,'' not ''HIPPA''; and 2) Facilities would stop being so careless. Not the case. Misguided ''HIPPA'' use still abounds and, even more disconcerting, some organizations can't seem to lock a strategy down. ...

While interviewing for my articles on HITECH requirements for medical transcription service providers and independent contractors (ICs), I couldn't help thinking, ''I am so glad I just write about this stuff.'' I never would want to handle the stress of HIPAA compliance and, quite frankly, I wouldn't even know where to start. Encryption? I guess ...

It's Friday--time to catch up on the news. I was hoping to share a delightful health-related story with you, but there were too many good ones, and who am I to single out? So, on to a list we go; I'll leave it up to you to pick and prune according to your preferences. CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explores record access issues ...

If you're on Facebook, you may have heard about the new privacy changes that have members and watchdog organizations crying foul. The new settings allow for greater customization and granularity (you can specify an appropriate audience for each individual post you make), but many of the fields default to public view. And hence the problem-users ...

There's been quite a buzz at ADVANCE headquarters about the television phenomena ''Nurse Jackie'' and ''HawthoRNe.'' Staffers wonder: is it realistic, do nurses approve of the portrayal and--at least around the HIM desk--how many HIPAA violations can they pack into one episode? If the writers are anything like the ''Law and Order'' crew and want ...