Questions? Contact Us Today!
1-800-266-1938 | Email
Health centers that discovered breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI) affecting fewer than 500 individuals in 2016 have until March 1st to report the breaches to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Reporting Requirements
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently issued a Policy Statement increasing the dollar thresholds for gifts of “nominal value” to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries from $10 per item to $15 per item or from $50 in the aggregate per patient annually to $75 in the aggregate per patient annually.
In a report requested by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the U.S.
Each year the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Inspector General (OIG) releases a Work Plan for the upcoming fiscal year.1 The Work Plan summarizes new and ongoing reviews and activities that the OIG plans to pursue with respect to HHS programs and operations during the current fiscal year and beyond. Some of the projects described in the Work Plan are statutorily required and others relate to risk areas identified by the OIG.
A Texas Federal court recently issued a nationwide injunction preventing the implementation of the overtime rule issued by the Department of Labor earlier this year. The rule, which would have updated the overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for the first time in nearly twelve years, would have made salaried workers earning less than $47,476 annually eligible for overtime pay. It was scheduled to take effect on December 1.
St. Joseph Health (SJH), a nonprofit health care delivery system, recently agreed to pay $2.14 million and to adopt a comprehensive corrective action plan after it was reported that they potentially disclosed the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 31,800 individuals.
On October 14th, the former CEO of two Alabama non-profit health clinics was sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He must also pay $13.5 million in restitution. This sentencing comes after he was convicted on 98 of 112 charged counts in June of this year.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the HHS Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) recently updated their Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool for small to mid-sized health care organizations. The Tool includes 156 questions designed to help organizations conduct and document that they have performed a security risk assessment.
HRSA recently announced that the Change in Scope (CIS) process will be revised to remove redundant questions, to revise the assurances sections, to remove financial questions, and to align CIS budget changes with annual application processes. The current CIS submission process in the Electronic Handbooks (EHBs) System will undergo a temporary suspension period from October 6 through November 3. No new CIS requests may be submitted during this time. HRSA has advised health centers to work with their project officers on any current in-process CIS requests.
On September 8, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Final Rule to address gaps in the current Medicare and Medicaid emergency preparedness regulations for providers and suppliers.
The Final Rule dictates that Medicare and Medicaid providers and suppliers are now required to meet common emergency best practice standards in order to continue to participate in these programs. They will need to: