Comply with regulations or risk paying hefty fines: ten tips for choosing call recording to help ensure compliance

Medical practices are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for not complying with various governmental regulations, including a variety of HIPAA rules and credit card compliance. One solution to help reduce this risk and avoid fines is to use call recording to help ensure compliance. This article provides readers with key considerations for choosing and implementing a call recording solution for their medical practices to ensure that it will be compliant with key regulations. These tips include being able to customize call recording policies and procedures for their unique needs; providing secure, private storage; allowing easy access for authorized users; secure sharing of call recordings; regulatory compliance training; disaster recovery; and maintaining an audit-ready and compliant-evident state at all times.

Maintaining proper dental records

Referred to as Standard of Care, the legal duty of a dentist requires exercising the degree of skill and care that would be exhibited by other prudent dentists faced with the same patient-care situation. Primarily, the goal of keeping good dental records is to maintain continuity of care. Diligent and complete documentation and charting procedures are essential to fulfilling the Standard of Care. Secondly, because dental records are considered legal documents they help protect the interest of the dentist and/or the patient by establishing the details of the services rendered. Patients today are better educated and more assertive than ever before and dentists must be equipped to protect themselves against malpractice claims. Every record component must be handled as if it could be summoned to a court room and scrutinized by an attorney, judge or jury. Complete, accurate, objective and honest entries in a patient record are the only way to defend against any clinical and/or legal problems that might arise. Most medical and dental malpractice claims arise from an unfavorable interaction with the dentist and not from a poor treatment outcome. By implementing the suggestions mentioned in this course, dental health care professionals can minimize the legal risks associated with the delivery of dental care to promote greater understanding for patients of their rights and privileges to their complete record.

Ninety-day waiting period limitation and technical amendments to certain health coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act. Final rule

These final regulations implement the 90-day waiting period limitation under section 2708 of the Public Health Service Act, as added by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act), as amended, and incorporated into the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code. These regulations also finalize amendments to existing regulations to conform to Affordable Care Act provisions. Specifically, these rules amend regulations implementing existing provisions such as some of the portability provisions added by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) because those provisions of the HIPAA regulations have become superseded or require amendment as a result of the market reform protections added by the Affordable Care Act.

Right-wing conspiracy? Socialist plot? The origins of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Did the ACA signify a government takeover of the health care system, a first step on the road to socialism, as conservative critics charged? Or was it, rather, a sellout to the right wing, as liberal single-payer advocates proclaimed? The ACA's key provisions, the employer mandate and the individual mandate, were Republican policy ideas, and its fundamental principles were nearly identical to the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993 (HEART), a bill promoted by Republican senators to deflect support for President Bill Clinton's Health Security plan. Yet the ACA was also a policy legacy of the Clinton administration in important ways that rarely are acknowledged, notably Medicaid expansion and insurance company regulation. Although the ACA departed from the liberal vision of a single-payer plan and adhered closely to the objectives of those who believed that the health care system should encourage the free market, it included provisions that will make coverage more affordable, reliable, and accessible.

Preemption and the MLR provision of the Affordable Care Act

This Note focuses on the medical loss ratio provision (“MLR Provision”) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The MLR Provision states that health insurance companies must spend at least a certain percentage of their premium revenue on “activities that improve healthcare quality” (in other words, meet a minimum threshold medical loss ratio) and comply with reporting requirements determined by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Because states have historically had authority over the regulation of health insurance, there is an outstanding question as to whether or not the MLR Provision has legal authority to preempt conflicting state MLR regulations.

Part II of this Note outlines the major requirements in the MLR Provision and discusses the history of MLR regulation in the United States. Part III discusses the likelihood that the courts will soon resolve the question of preemption regarding the MLR Provision.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; program integrity: Exchange, SHOP, and eligibility appeals. Final rule

This final rule implements provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively referred to as the Affordable Care Act). Specifically, this final rule outlines Exchange standards with respect to eligibility appeals, agents and brokers, privacy and security, issuer direct enrollment, and the handling of consumer cases. It also sets forth standards with respect to a State's operation of the Exchange and Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). It generally is finalizing previously proposed policies without change.

Confidentiality protections versus collaborative care in the treatment of substance use disorders

Practitioners in federally-assisted substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs are faced with increasingly complex decisions when addressing patient confidentiality issues. Recent policy changes, intended to make treatment more available and accessible, are having an impact on delivery of SUD treatment in the United States. The addition of electronic health records provides opportunity for more rapid and comprehensive communication between patients' primary and SUD care providers while promoting a collaborative care environment. This shift toward collaborative care is complicated by the special protections that SUD documentation receives in SUD treatment programs, which vary depending on what care is provided and the setting where the patient is treated. This article explores the special protections for substance abuse documentation, discrepancies in treatment documentation, ways to deal with these issues in clinical practice, and the need for more knowledge about how to harmonize treatment in the SUD and primary care systems.

Communication by mothers with breast cancer or melanoma with their children

Communication of familial risk of breast cancer and melanoma has the potential to educate relatives about their risk, and may also motivate them to engage in prevention and early detection practices. With the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy laws, the patient often becomes the sole communicator of such risks to family members. This study surveys mothers diagnosed with either breast cancer or melanoma and their adult children about their family communication style, knowledge of increased risk, and early detection practices. In both cancer groups, most mothers alerted their children of the risk and need for early detection practices. Breast cancer mothers communicated risk and secondary prevention with early detection by breast self-examination and mammograms whereas the melanoma mothers communicated risk and primary prevention strategies like applying sunscreen and avoiding deliberate tanning. Open communication about health matters significantly increased the likelihood that children engaged in early detection and/or primary prevention behaviors. Examining the information conveyed to at-risk family members, and whether such information motivated them to engage in early detection/prevention behaviors, is key to guiding better cancer prevention communication between doctors and patients.

HIPAA compliance deadline approaching: five steps to ensure you are ready

The September 23, 2013, deadline for covered entities, business associates, and their subcontractors to comply with new HIPAA rules is fast approaching. Now is the time to ensure HIPAA compliance before the deadline arrives and avoid any penalties that could result from failure to act.