In the August and September issues, CMM told you about a recent set of revisions to the discharge planning section of the CMS State Operations Manual. While most of the changes amounted to housekeeping, CMS did take the unusual step of including some non-binding best practice recommendations related to discharge practices. Surveyors won't penalize your organization if you don't follow these recommendations, but experts recommend following the agency's advice whenever possible.
Every healthcare organization should develop and implement a policy and a well-defined process that provides guidance for managing incident and breach response.
Q. Is it acceptable for admitting and patient registration staff to photograph patients upon check- in for identification purposes? Is it permissible to take pictures of behavioral health patients for the same purpose?
Our experts answer questions about NCCI edits for injections, modifier -25, modifier -59, laminotomy with insertion of Coflex distraction device, billing mammogram for needle placement, and auditing electronic orders.
There is some common ground in the corrective action plans (CAP) that OCR has imposed on healthcare organizations it has investigated for HIPAA privacy and security deficiencies.
