Healthcare Risk Management – July 1, 2024

HITECH Audits Return: OCR Promises Enforcement Changes for HIPAA

The Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) has reopened the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) audit program and will begin audits of HIPAA-regulated entities later in 2024. The audits will focus on the Security Rule, particularly the requirements for security risk analyses and risk management.

Patient Advocacy System Shown to Lower Malpractice Costs

A patient advocacy reporting program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center was associated with a significant decrease in malpractice claim costs for high-risk clinicians in an orthopedic practice network, suggesting a strategy that other hospitals can employ.

Patient Termination Requires Right Steps, Good Documentation

Terminating a relationship with a patient or banning someone from a hospital is never done lightly, and, fortunately, it does not happen often. But when it is necessary, healthcare organizations must tread carefully to ensure that the patient is afforded other opportunities and that the potential liabilities are minimized.

Is Text Messaging Ever HIPAA-Compliant?

Text messaging is so convenient and common that it is tempting to use it for communicating with patients. But HIPAA applies, and the use of text messaging is allowed only when meeting some strict requirements.

New Jersey Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of Complaint After Failure to Offer an Affidavit of Merit in Both Specialties of Treating Physician

Recently, a New Jersey appellate court affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a medical malpractice plaintiff’s complaint for lacking an affidavit of merit, which often is a requirement in malpractice suits. The appeal of the trial court’s decision revolved around the sufficiency of an affidavit of merit in a situation where a defendant physician’s answer to the medical negligence complaint stated involvement in two specialties, but the plaintiff provided an affidavit of merit from a physician board-certified in only one of those specialties.

Missouri Appellate Court Reverses Trial Court’s Grant of Summary Judgment After Finding that Injured Patient’s Evidence Could Show Medical Negligence of Chiropractor

In a medical negligence case, an appellate court in Missouri recently reversed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment to a chiropractor defendant on the basis that there were factual issues that should have been decided by the jury. After a patient sued her chiropractor when she suffered three broken ribs during a treatment, the chiropractor defendant claimed that the patient was claiming medical negligence by pointing to her injury rather than showing that the chiropractor was negligent or that the chiropractor’s alleged negligence caused her injury.