Access to protected health information (PHI) is one of the most important rights individuals and their personal representatives have under the privacy regulations, but this right is not absolute.
Q: A patient in the emergency room (ER) recently complained that she could hear the doctor and nurses discussing details of care of the patient in the bed next to hers. I understand that we should avoid disclosures, but the ER is often noisy and chaotic. How should we handle this situation?
Patient care continues to move from the inpatient setting to outpatient. With this change, the challenge of securing comprehensive documentation that articulates the services rendered and the patient care provided now needs to extend across the care continuum.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the Cooperating Parties responsible for the ICD-10-CM codes and guidelines, recently released a 2018 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting errata. Slight changes were made to the guidelines for diabetes, hypertension, and principal diagnosis selection.
Five senators recently asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine the costs and risks associated with mismatched patient records during the agency’s review of patient matching. The GAO is required by the 21st Century Cures Act to conduct an assessment on patient matching to protect patient privacy and security.
