CMS' fiscal year 2015 IPPS final rule focuses on quality initiatives mandated by the Affordable Care Act, including updates to the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, and the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. This quality focus creates a need for increased interdisciplinary collaboration across quality, HIM, risk management, revenue cycle, compliance, and technology.
Imagine the information services department manager tells the HIM director he or she can't outsource transcription or receive reports directly in the EHR without a tremendous amount of manual intervention.
Perhaps it's because I reside in Chicago?home of both Oprah Winfrey and the American Health Information Management Association?but lately I have been thinking about "aha moments" for HIM professionals.
I have recently heard questions and discussion about the use of abbreviations within the medical record. With that in mind, this quarter's Joint Commission column will outline the requirements for abbreviations and provide guidance regarding the pros and cons of expanding the limited "do-not-use" list
In the wake of several large breaches, OCR is ready to ramp up its oversight of HIPAA compliance as it embarks upon Phase 2 of its HIPAA privacy, security, and breach notification audits. OCR began preparing for this round of audits around the same time that news broke of the second-largest HIPAA breach in the U.S., a hacking incident that affected 4.5 million patients treated at or referred to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, Inc.
1. Phase 2 of OCR's HIPAA audits will be desk audits, which means OCR will not conduct on-site audits of covered entities (CE) and business associates (BA) unless resources are available.
