Q: An employee in a psychiatric hospital’s billing department sees a fellow parishioner’s name. He calls other parishioners to tell them that this individual is a patient at the hospital, and they share this information on a prayer chain. Suddenly, several hundred people know that this parishioner is a patient in a psychiatric hospital. Is this an acceptable disclosure?
Q: What are the HIPAA rules regarding disclosures of health information to a patient’s same-sex partner when the couple is not married or the partner is not considered a relative under the law?
Q: How many hours of observation services must a patient receive before the hospital is required to provide them with the Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON)?
Q: We are seeing more fundoplication surgeries and esophageal sphincter augmentation procedures for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease at our hospital. Do you have any tips for our coders when reporting these procedures in ICD-10-PCS?
