The Compliance Insider 

Q: Does OSHA mandate that disposable gloves are required for blood draws? If so, where is the reference? A: Gloves are required for employees doing blood draws. The applicable section of the Bloodborne Pathogens... Continue Reading

Q: A 16-year-old patient has admitted to extensive substance abuse, which is documented in his medical record. His father is requesting the record. Must we obtain the patient's authorization prior to... Continue Reading

Scenario: Your employee has been with the company for two years. Despite supervisory training and coaching on her performance and the company's expectations, her performance remains sub-par. Her repeated mistakes... Continue Reading

OIG recently posted the latest updated exclusion and reinstatement files. The "Updated LEIE" (List of Excluded Individuals and Entities) database file reflects all OIG exclusion and reinstatement actions up to,... Continue Reading

Regarding OSHA inspections, we recently received the following question from a client; the answer may surprise you. Q: I am taking over OSHA compliance for our medical practice and the previous safety officer is... Continue Reading

HIPAA requires that covered entities have in place "appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards" for protected health information (PHI). The Privacy Rule, which also extends to non-electronic... Continue Reading

Scenario: For financial reasons, your practice has decided to implement a reduction in force, and affected employees need to be told that they are being laid off. What do you do now? The single most important... Continue Reading

The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that a Las Vegas woman recently pleads guilty to falsely representing to Medicare that she owned a Los Angeles-area durable medical... Continue Reading

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... Continue Reading

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,... Continue Reading