The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) gave organizations and patients some relief from the stricter privacy rules protecting substance abuse and treatment information. But did SAMHSA really make the rule simpler, or will privacy and security officers find themselves grappling with a fresh set of complicated rules and exceptions?
Traditionally, the OPPS rulemaking cycle has been the main vehicle for changes to outpatient coding and billing regulations and policy that hospitals need to pay attention to. But increasingly, CMS has been introducing or discussing changes relevant to outpatient hospitals beyond the scope of the OPPS rules.
Nancy is a manager of a hospital with a large indigent population. Nancy notes that immediately after the implementation of healthcare reform, many of her patients have obtained some form of health insurance, usually Medicaid. Often, the patients access Medicaid with the help of the hospital’s expert financial counselors. Recently, however, the number of uninsured patients in the community seems to be increasing. As a result, more uninsured patients are being admitted. Before healthcare reform, many uninsured people failed to seek timely, preventive healthcare. Therefore, they were quite sick by the time they came to a hospital. Nancy is now seeing a resurgence of uninsured indigent patients.
With the challenges and sometimes-abundant negativity everywhere we look, we can forget the privileges of a certification or degree in HIM. Take a moment to remind yourself of the reasons you're proud to be an HIM professional.
