Jean Stone, RHIT, CCS, has never met some of the coders who report directly to her. She has, however, spoken with them by phone, and in some cases, she has seen their wedding or other photographs. This is because nearly all members of her department work remotely.
The company, based in Prince George's County, MD, got hit in February with OCR's first civil money penalty for violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule-a $4.3 million tab that included $3 million for failing to cooperate with the agency's investigation. OCR determined Cignet acted with "willful neglect" and did not take action to correct the violations, which allowed the agency to impose the highest level of fines based on its tiered penalty structure.
There are some Joint Commission EPs with which almost all hospital HIM departments struggle. Surveyors continue to focus on them, so chances are you should too.
Even with today's tight budgets, there are still ways you can brighten the faces of your staff members. We asked the MRB advisory board members for their best ideas and tried-and-true tactics. Here's what they had to say.
When President Obama signed into law the HITECH Act as part of ARRA in February 2009, it meant a bevy of changes to the existing HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Enforcement Rules.
