The Compliance Insider 

Q: Patients receive a Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) at their initial visit that includes information explaining their privacy rights. This includes the patients' right to opt-out of the facility directory. Should... Read More

Do your employees find it difficult to remember the order in which they should put on and take off PPE? The recommended order for donning items is not the same as for doffing PPE used for protection from... Read More

Provider groups have slammed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services after the agency issued a final rule that would reduce Medicare payments to skilled nursing facilities by $3.87 billion for the fiscal... Read More

Q: In-home healthcare who is responsible for purchasing gloves-employer, employee, or patient? If the employer, can the employer put a limit on the number of gloves per month? A: If you are an employee of a home... Read More

CMS issues the Advance Beneficiary Notice of Non-coverage (ABN) for you to use to notify your Medicare patients when you believe an item or service may not be covered. This form has been updated and changed several... Read More

HIPAA compliance auditors contracted by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will review whether covered entities have corrective action plans in place and if they diligently work to remediate any problems. Below... Read More

As of Aug. 22, 2011, there have been 306 major health information breaches, which have affected a total of almost 11.7 million individuals included in the official federal tally. Fourteen incidents affecting a... Read More

Under HIPAA Privacy and as outlined on your NPP, the patient has many rights. One of these is the right to request an accounting of all non-TPO disclosures (any disclosure that is not for treatment, payment, or... Read More

Needlesticks have been ranked as eighth on the list of Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011. The number of reports is staggering even with the emphasis on training and prevention during the past 20... Read More

Under the in-office ancillary exception to the Stark Law, if you refer a patient for MRI, CT, or PET scans offered by your practice, you provide notice to the patient of alternative area suppliers for the imaging... Read More