HHS released its biggest set of modifications to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules with the January 17 unveiling of its long-awaited "HIPAA mega rule."
A former clinical director for Biscayne Milieu, a Miami-based mental health clinic, was sentenced to 100 months in prison for his participation in a Medicare fraud scheme involving the submission of more than $50 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare, announced the Assistant Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Florida, the FBI Miami Field Office, and the HHS-OIG Office of Investigations Miami Office in a press release.
Law enforcement officials in Texas, Florida, and New York recently announced plea agreements and fines involving the billing of an unapproved prescription drug and Medicare fraud.
You hear it over and over again. Covered Entity (CE) A failed to produce an ongoing risk assessment for HIPAA security compliance. CE B had an incomplete risk analysis, leading to a failure to recognize security weaknesses and vulnerabilities. And in come the fines.
One thing is certain: You don't want to wait until you receive a notification letter from OCR before you begin preparing for a HIPAA audit, says Dena Boggan, CPC, CMC, CCP, HIPAA privacy/security officer at St. Dominic Jackson (Miss.) Memorial Hospital.
You're reviewing a case file and discover that a patient's recent readmission is due to a medication prescribing error made by a physician. Do you report it?
UK HealthCare’s Chief Compliance Officer R. Brett Short knew he was in for a rough day as soon as he saw the email from his organization’s privacy officer.
There are six generic approaches to managing risk, and the approach an organization chooses to use will depend on many factors. For example, how real is this risk? Can it actually become a problem, or is it merely theoretical? Management will want to decide whether the risk is likely to happen and whether it is possible to determine when it may happen. This will also assist in appropriate allocation of resources to focus on material risk areas.
When OCR resumes its HIPAA audits sometime this year, healthcare organizations can expect members of the audit team to focus on key issues identified by the federal agency.
The HITECH Act, which included changes to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, was signed into law by President Obama in February 2009?a full five years ago.
