National healthcare spending increased by 5.8% in 2015, the highest single-year growth since 2007, according to a recent American Medical Association (AMA) Policy Research Perspective report based on CMS data. This translates to the United States spending $3.2 trillion on healthcare in 2015, which is the most recent year for which data is available.
The Center for Children’s Digestive Health (CCDH), an Illinois clinic group, dished out $31,000 in a HIPAA settlement with HHS due to a lack of a business associate agreement (BAA) with a vendor, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced April 20.
Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN), a federally-qualified health center (FQHC) in Denver, agreed to a $400,000 HIPAA breach settlement and corrective action plan.
Q: A physician’s office called our office about a mutual patient to inquire the date the patient was last seen in our office for Medicare billing purposes. How are we supposed to know that they are in fact who they have identified themselves as? Are we allowed to provide this information without the patient adding this physician office to the disclosure form?
Q: The parents of a child at our pediatric clinic are divorced and the child is a beneficiary of one parent’s insurance. That parent wishes to restrict information the other has access to. However, because the parents have joint custody, the child may be brought in by either parent. Is there anything in HIPAA that could support denying the request or that would require us to comply?
