The Compliance Insider 

Do you know whether it is against OSHA regulations to have a sprayer on a soiled utility sink used for patient care equipment? Under OSHA, there is no specific prohibition against having a sprayer on a... Read More

We have received some recent inquiries from offices regarding the following question: Is it a HIPAA violation that needs to be reported when the wrong doctor receives a patient's test results? (For example,... Read More

The Department of Health & Human Services recently pushed forward a HITECH-required proposed rule on accounting of disclosures of EHRs. The rule will lay the foundation for what healthcare providers will be... Read More

Each year the Medicare program makes billions of dollars in estimated improper payments. CMS employs several types of Review Contractors to measure, prevent, identify, and correct these improper... Read More

Many have asked lately, the following question: What is your recommendation for dealing with medical records contaminated with dried blood? Under OSHA, you first want to determine whether there is a work... Read More

The HITECH Act modifies the HIPAA Privacy Rule requirement so that covered entities will be complying if the PHI access, use, and disclosure are limited to either the minimum necessary or a "limited data set." The... Read More

Are you remembering to account for the disclosures of PHI? Some healthcare providers are not compliant with this part of the Privacy Rule. Under HIPAA Privacy and as outlined on the NPP, the patient has many... Read More

A senior official with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said recently that the enforcer of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule plans to release final rules regarding HITECH and HIPAA next year. He stated that... Read More

The Chicago-based Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI) of Austin, TX, were recently named as the first official certifiers of EHR technology.... Read More

Recently the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the availability of registration for the Medicare and Medicaid... Read More