As we begin to close out the year, it seems to be a good time to reflect on some of the challenging standards hospitals faced in Joint Commission surveys during 2011.
No industry or profession is immune to the budget crunch. Unfortunately, many coding departments fall into a routine and neglect to assess their costs and look for innovative ways to save money.
CMS finalized a documentation and coding adjustment (DCA) of -2% for fiscal year (FY) 2012, according to the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule. CMS originally proposed a year-over-year reduction of 0.5% in payments to acute care hospitals, including a DCA of -3.15%. However, CMS finalized a cut of 2%, a decrease from 2.9% in FY 2011, which translates to $1.13 billion more in hospital payments in FY 2012 than hospitals received the previous year.
Q A fax containing PHI is sent to an incorrect fax number. Did the covered entity (CE) or business associate (BA) violate HIPAA? Must the patient disclosure accounting record include this incident?
