These are recaps of what they report as some of the trends and realities of compliance today
Audit
The Dangers of Undercoding
The innumerable horror stories related to payer audits have given rise to a new trend of undercoding, by intent! Many providers would rather be safe than sorry, all in the name of keeping their good names off the radar. However, undercoding can backfire, resulting in...
21st Century Cures Act and CMS Interoperability & Patient Access
The 21st Century Cures Act ("Cures Act") was approved by Congress in 2016 with the intent to provide electronic access, exchange, and use of health information across all different types of health care entities. On May 1, 2020, the Cures Act's final rule became...
The Public Health Emergency (PHE) Will Fade Away
On the day that President Biden was sworn into office, the public health emergency (PHE) was set to expire, but the Department of Health & Human Services extended the emergency declaration for another 90 days, to April 20, 2021. This represents the fourth time...
First Proposed HIPAA Privacy Rules Changes in 8 Years
In a response to the healthcare community’s desire to lessen the administrative burden on HIPAA covered entities, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a request of information (RFI) in December of 2018. Two years later, after this RFI comment period closed, the OCR...
Welcome to HCN ELEMENTS, our publication of information and insights on the everchanging regulatory compliance landscape.
ELEMENTS may seem like an unusual name for a newsletter but for us, the word is pretty much of a North Star. We use the “7 Elements of Compliance “to guide everything we do. A little history by way of explanation. In the mid 1990’s the CDC, OSHA and other government...
As the Feds Get Tough on Workplace Safety, HCN Can Help Your Practice Stay Compliant
What to Do If Your Practice is Subjected to a Coding Audit
A coding audit can be immensely stressful. Even though many practices do well, there are cases (some of them rather well known) involving fraudulent behavior which result in large recoupments and overpayment extrapolations. How well you’ll do depends at least in...
Uber Health: Changing the No-Show Equation
Uber has created a service called Uber Health. It is a way for them to partner with healthcare organizations to provide reliable, comfortable transportation for patients.