You receive a RAC demand letter for repayment. But wait a minute before you pay up—you might want to take a close look to make sure your facility was really in the wrong. Karen Sagen, managed care leader at Bellin Health System in Green Bay, WI, who has worked in revenue cycle management for the past six years, has developed a step-by-step list of things to consider before pulling out your hospital’s checkbook.
While your healthcare organization awaits a breach notification final rule from HHS, there are some practical steps you can take to prepare should you need to notify patients of a privacy breach.
Q. An insurance company is requesting copies of medical records to review our CPT coding. These cases are at least a year old and have been paid already. The insurance company said its review will not affect our payment. Do we need patient authorization to release these records, since this does not involve treatment, payment, or office operations?