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What's a shared user name between friends? Quite a bit, when it comes to the HIPAA security rule...
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According to the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, the economic stimulus package passed by Congress last year included several changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) involving privacy of patient information:
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The substantial penalties possible with HITECH are good reason for risk managers to take a fresh look at their HIPAA compliance programs...
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Because HIPAA can be enforced by state attorneys general and not just the feds, risk managers should study any interstate connections that could come into play if there is a privacy breach...
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About 650 surgical fires are reported in U.S. hospitals each year, according to the nonprofit ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting, PA, and there are another three to four times as many near-misses. Fires during surgery can be extremely serious, causing significant injuries and death to both patients and clinicians.
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A recent example of a surgical fire reported by Mary A. Herman, MD, PhD, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, illustrates how such an incident can occur in routine circumstances.
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The risk of infection from exposure to a patient's bodily fluids gained great attention over the past 20 years, spurred by the risk of exposure to HIV, and that heightened awareness has led to improvements in needlestick prevention. But another route of exposure to bodily fluids has not received adequate attention, say some experts.
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Health care providers are becoming more familiar with the many errors that can trigger a RAC audit, but what is much lesser known among the health care community is that a patient's mismanagement of Medicare set-aside (MSA) funds post-settlement also could trigger an audit.
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During a three- to four-month period, an 86-year-old man with a history of severe and varied health problems was transferred back and forth between a local hospital and nursing home for recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs).
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has published an interim final rule incorporating provisions of the Health Information Technology for Clinical and Economic Health (HITECH) Act related to HIPAA violations that significantly increase the penalties it can levee against employers and health care providers.
