It has been a little over a year since the passage of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA). Enactment of CIRCIA marks an important milestone in improving America’s cybersecurity by, among other things, requiring the Cybersecurity and...
After surveying thousands of physician practices over the last thirty years, we are still surprised at how many calls we receive about what a Full Threat Assessment looks like. This is especially true of the ones that are required by insurance companies, as well as by...
Far too often, physician practices leave the heavy lifting of their Security Risk Assessment (SRA) to their IT team, IT vendor, or Managed Service Provider (MSP). It is true that much of the SRA focuses on technical safeguards, but it is critical that elements of the...
For the last few years, MIPS (Merit-Based Incentive Payment System) has been avoidable primarily due to COVID-19 and other hardships. However, 2022 seems to be the year when there is going to be pushback on the practices making it more difficult to get an exemption....
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...
The importance of a well-fitting mask has been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen an increase in formal fit test evaluations over the past year due to the needs of the current crisis. Now that PPE is readily available and overall emergency...
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...
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...
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...
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...