Our recent webinar featuring Steve Wilder discussing OSHA Workplace Violence enforcement actions against healthcare facilities is now available online by clicking on the following link for replay times and reservations. http://goo.gl/898fu
In another case that appears to be aimed at getting physician groups to take HIPAA compliance seriously, CMS has bumped the finalcial risks dramatically with the most recent fine announcement. which takes the largest physician office fine from $100,000 to $1.5 million. Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates Inc. (collectively … Read more
For an interesting and non-threatening approach to the topic of HIPAA privacy and security, the feds have released an online game at http://lnkd.in/NDigJx . While this game certainly is not a comprehensive staff training on HIPAA, it is a good way to open the discussion and start real training. I suggest that you use the game as … Read more
With a two-year Statute of Limitations built into the EMTALA law, does anything toll or extend the time to file a law suit? Not according to a Puerto Rico federal court. While not finding any affirmative authority for tolling, the Court considered whether “equitable tolling” or extension for fairness was an avenue to get around … Read more
While Massachusetts General Hospital got socked with a $1 million HIPAA penalty when an employee left 192 patient records in the open on a subway seat, the penalty is perhaps not the worst of the consequences. MASS General also was required to sign a Corrective Action Plan that will have the Office of Civil Rights … Read more
Outside the Emergency Department ambulances are jammed into lines waiting to deliver their emergency patients. Patients in need of life-saving care sit 150 feet from the doctors they need to save their lives, and they cannot reach them. Inside the ED doors, EMS crews stand over their patients and vainly attempt to get nurses to … Read more
Hospital A owned an Indiana ambulance that transported an EMS patient to Hospital B. While in the ambulance, the patient died. The patient’s family sued the hospital under EMTALA arguing that the hospital-owned ambulance was required to have taken the patient to Hospital A, and therefore violated EMTALA. Initially, the trial court ruled with the … Read more
When physicians become employees of hospitals or clinics, they often assign their billing rights to the employer as a part of the agreement. Once signed, few physicians give much attention to how the employer codes and bills the services, but the OIG has alerted physicians that could be a big mistake. The OIG has warned … Read more
When court cases involving healthcare hit federal court, many hospitals and physicians are shocked to learn that what they thought was confidential peer or quality review information is brought out in discovery. In another example of this important difference between state and federal litigation, a US District Court sitting in NY ruled that peer review … Read more
The federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) made the point that even small medical offices are not immune from HIPAA enforcement in April when a Phoenix cardiology office was fined $100,000 for HIPAA violations stemming from an online calendar system that exposed patient information. Among the other elements cited were a failure to provide and … Read more