Under what circumstances would it be appropriate for a patient who does not meet inpatient criteria to be registered as outpatient receiving observation services?
Q: I work for a hospital with a geriatric psychiatry unit. Many patients are discharged to nursing homes. Often, nursing homes contact the hospital for patient information, but we have only the patients' psychiatric records and are hesitant to send them. Is it permissible under HIPAA to send this information to a nursing home for continued care?
CMS released the Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2019 final rule April 9 to give states additional flexibility when choosing benefits in essential health benefit benchmark plans offered under health insurance marketplaces.
Q: We are having trouble determining what qualifies a patient as having an acute myocardial infarction (MI) and what documentation would support the diagnosis. Can you help our coding team clarify?
Q: We are a doctor’s office in a small town. Recently, one of our patients threw away some papers containing PHI in a wastebasket in the waiting room. Another patient’s child later took them out of the wastebasket. The child’s parent brought the papers up to the desk and apologized. Is this a privacy breach? Are we responsible for the papers even though we turned them over to the patient?
