Workplace violence has been at the forefront of news reports lately and violence against healthcare workers has risen over the past several years. It’s a topic that is sometimes overlooked and can only be eradicated through conversation, education, and solid safety...
Releasing Patient Health Information: Release Management Practices
The exchange or release of health information is essential to the provision of high quality and cost-effective health care. The information released should be within the scope of the request, complete based on the nature of the request and submitted timely. This...
COVID Shines a Light on Employee Safety
Historically, OSHA has been stable in their physician regulations, but the COVID era altered that equation. OSHA had been relatively quiet through the pandemic, letting the CDC do most of the heavy lifting, but since practices opened back up in May 2020 there has been...
Emergency Operations Plans – Your Best Defense
An emergency operations plan (EOP) is your best defense against a disaster, lawsuit, and repetitional damage. In 2017, CMS outlined to17 healthcare entities that to participate in CMS, they must have a plan. Though physician practices are not part of the 17, it is...
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...
Lessons Learned from the First Wave of COVID: How to Navigate the Second Wave and Implement Lasting Changes to Benefit your Practice
When the COVID-19 pandemic reached our shores, it instantly changed the way we lived and worked. Many businesses were shuttered, and most people have yet to return to their offices since the March 2020 lockdowns. Virtual meetings, remote learning and limited socially...
As the Feds Get Tough on Workplace Safety, HCN Can Help Your Practice Stay Compliant
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid services has recently proposed dramatic changes to the evaluation and management (E/M) guidelines and payment methodology.
The proposed rule includes a single payment for new and established patient office visits, elimination of the history and physical examination documentation requirements, and heightened emphasis on the medical decision-making (MDM) and time elements....
Does the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance apply to your practice?
GDPR is similar in concept to HIPAA/HITECH for the United States, but not only does it protect an individual’s health information (PHI), but it covers all personal data.