Knowing when a breach occurred is one of the keys to reducing the risks associated with a breach of unsecure protected health information (PHI). Another is speedy mitigation.
Are you still struggling to comply with the new requirements of the HIPAA omnibus final rule? A new toolkit offers sample policies, forms, and checklists that can help.
Q . Is it permissible to take pictures of patients (including behavioral health) for identification purposes as a part of the registration process? Do the patients need to sign a consent form before their picture can be taken?
Although it hasn't released many details yet, OCR plans to resume its audits to assess compliance with HIPAA privacy, security, and breach notification requirements in 2014. The government agency also plans to expand the audit focus to include business associates (BA).
Coders select E/M levels based on criteria developed by their organization. CMS has proposed a significant change to E/M coding-replacing the current 20 E/M levels for new patients, existing patients, and ED visits with three G codes-but that change would only apply to Medicare patients and only to the facility side.
