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Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Frisco, in Frisco, Texas, announced a data breach earlier this month affecting 47,000 patients and guarantors. The breach occurred in September when the hospital found an issue with a third-party vendor’s credit card processing system.

Q: Sometimes the emergency department where I work gets so busy we have to evaluate patients before they can be placed in a room. I have seen nurses perform examinations on patients on stretchers in hallways where they can easily be overheard discussing medical histories and treatment options. Would this be considered a HIPAA violation?

Hospitals are allowed to publish a list of charges that contains UB-04 revenue codes when complying with 2019 IPPS final rule requirements requiring the publication of standard charges, the American Hospital Association (AHA) said in a regulatory advisory bulletin

Q: Who should the case management department report to?

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently announced that it is launching two new population health management programs.

Q: I’m working with our contracting staff to negotiate with a new payer. Is there any potentially problematic contract language I should take under further review?

Findings from a retrospective analysis of inpatient data recently published in Critical Care Medicine show that average hospital costs and mortality rates are significantly higher for patients diagnosed with sepsis after hospital admission when compared with patients diagnosed prior to admission.

Q: Can an ICD-10-CM body mass index (BMI) code be used as a standalone code? If not, what documentation should we look for to justify the use of a BMI code?

Q: I am an acupuncturist and have a patient who owes me $100. I contacted the patient about the missing payment but received no response. Would it be a HIPAA violation to get in touch with the patient’s emergency contact person about the missing payment? Or should I go to a debt collector?

HHS Office for Civil Rights has issued a request for information seeking input from the public on how the HIPAA Privacy Rule could be modified to meet HHS’s goal of promoting coordinated, value-based care.