Cybersecurity was already one of the top concerns among healthcare organizations at the beginning of 2022, after a record year of healthcare data breaches in 2021. And now, with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the increased international risk of a cyberattack from Russia, its allies, or other bad actors, experts are urging extreme caution and immediate action. READ MORE
Beginning April 5, information blocking is now prohibited through recently adopted regulations by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under the 21st Century Cures Act. Here’s what you should know. READ MORE
For months, we’ve been hearing about the surge of telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some sources estimated the increase was as much as 8,000 percent from the previous year. But now that patients are able to return to doctors’ offices and clinics throughout the country, what is the current state of telehealth? READ MORE
Industry leaders are demanding that CMS take immediate action to curb the “unfair” payment practices. READ MORE
Medicare will soon begin replacing beneficiaries’ social-security-based Health Insurance Claim Number with new randomly-assigned Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBI) to help protect against fraud and identity theft. Congress mandated the change through the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) with an April 2019 deadline. READ MORE
The US healthcare industry breathed a collective sigh of relief when the recent ransomware attack, WannaCry, appeared to bypass the United States. But the WannaCry malware isn’t the only persistent cybersecurity risk facing healthcare providers. How do healthcare organizations protect themselves from cyber attacks? READ MORE
It’s one thing to prepare for a HIPAA breach of your own, but do you know what your business associates are doing to plan for breaches and other security incidents? The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights is betting that you don’t. READ MORE
The Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has begun its Phase 2 Audits of covered entities and their business associates under the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules. READ MORE
Giving individuals the right to access and receive a copy of their health information is one of the basic tenets of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The Office for Civil Rights has issued new guidelines for how providers must respond to patient requests for health information. READ MORE
While all HIPAA-covered entities were required to transition to the ICD-10 code set as of October 1, 2015, non-HIPAA-covered entities, such as workers compensation and auto insurance companies, were not required to. READ MORE
