The Compliance Insider 

CMS recently announced that the first payments of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program were distributed on May 19. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Medicare EHR Incentive Program provides... Continue Reading

Covered entities (CE) and business associates (BA) finally know the details of the accounting of disclosures provision in HITECH now that the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released a proposed rule... Continue Reading

On Friday, May 27, 2011, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) published a HITECH-required proposed rule on accounting of disclosures of electronic health records (EHRs). The rule will ultimately lay the... Continue Reading

Many of you have inquired about the following question regarding business associates over the past weeks, so we thought we would review this again. Q: A covered entity encounters difficulty when executing updated... Continue Reading

Q: How often must we replace MSDSs in our MSDS file? A: OSHA requires that employers have a current MSDS for hazardous substances in the workplace. An updated MSDS included with the product can get misplaced,... Continue Reading

Q. We are a referral-based MRI facility. As a standard procedure, we fax MRI reports to referring providers after radiologist review. Patients can schedule follow-up appointments with referring providers to obtain... Continue Reading

We frequently get questions about transporting blood and urine samples. The following will help you understand what is required. Q. Do the samples need to be in a biohazard bag when transported either by... Continue Reading

The following article came from www.fmlainsights.com and was written by attorney, Jeff Nowak. Natural disasters like the kind we recently have witnessed in the flood-ravaged areas of the Southern United States... Continue Reading

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has statutory authority to enforce the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. And now, pursuant to HITECH, state attorneys general also have enforcement authority. An... Continue Reading

Q: I am a phlebotomy instructor who always emphasizes adherence to wearing gloves when drawing blood. One of my students told me that he regularly donates blood and platelets at a blood bank that has a sign on... Continue Reading