U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon issued preliminary approval on July 29 of an agreement that would require Premera Blue Cross to pay $74 million to settle a class-action lawsuit resulting from a 2015 data breach.
Case managers have long faced challenges related to caring for patients who are affected by social determinants of health. These factors have become even more of an issue since the implementation of healthcare reform, with the introduction of accountable care organizations and other innovative projects.
The field of case management is rapidly evolving as hospital leaders look to case managers to help them meet a host of new regulatory requirements and financial goals. But too often this has put undue pressure on case managers and taken focus off their most important job—coordinating care.
OCR in 2013, through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Ac,t issued a final rule identifying provisions of the HIPAA rules that apply directly to business associates (BA) and those provisions for which BAs are directly liable.
The most important means of identifying and documenting social determinants of health (SDoH) is establishing a strong patient screening program. Recording codes for SDoHs in the medical record can be time-consuming, so streamlining your screening process can make this job less arduous and more accurate.
HIPAA training is required by the HIPAA rules, under § 164.530, Administrative requirements. But just because it’s required doesn’t mean it has to be repetitive, boring, or unappealing. There are ways to make your healthcare staff excited about HIPAA training. At the very least, you can do your part to make sure they’re engaged.
