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.
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.
Reliable data backup is critical. If a backup is not in place and your system crashes, you not only have a HIPAA compliance problem, but you may not be able to support your critical operations. IDrive® is a secure backup service that provides "ready when you need it" backup restoration and meets the National Institute of Standards and Technology safe harbor encryption standard.
CMS released a number of proposed changes to the outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) July 8. The 2014 OPPS proposed rule (available at http://tinyurl.com/oyu33jx) is shorter than normal at 718 pages, but the proposed changes are significant and probably the most sweeping since the inception of OPPS, says Jugna Shah, MPH, president and founder of Nimitt Consulting in Washington, D.C.
Also known as the "mega rules," the omnibus final rules are clarifications and finalizations of the HIPAA rules of 2003, the HITECH rules of 2008, and the incorporation of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) rules into the Privacy and Security rules. These are not sweeping changes, as many describe, but clarifications. In most cases, what are now final rules are best practices that organizations should already be following.
