Archive for October 2020
As Telehealth Use Skyrockets CMS Expands Payment List
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that more than 34.5 million services were delivered via telehealth to patients in Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from March through June. That equates to an approximately 2,632 percent jump compared to the same period in 2019. However, CMS noted that since…
Read MoreOCR Right of Access Initiative Heats up
More and more healthcare providers who fail to make it easy for patients to access their medical records are finding themselves in hot water with the HHS Office of Civil Rights. In just the last few weeks, OCR announced it had settled two more investigations into violations of the HIPAA requirement that patients be given…
Read MorePandemic Poses HIPAA Compliance Issues for Providers
You’re seeing a patient virtually via telemedicine when suddenly a family member walks into the room and can be seen going about their business, picking up laundry, getting keys to the car, grabbing a snack from the refrigerator, what have you. What to do? It’s a scenario that recently played out not once, but twice,…
Read MoreNursing Homes, ALFs and Other Long-Term Care Facilities Face Challenging Legal Times in the Age of COVID-19
The superintendent and former medical director of a state-run soldier’s home in Massachusetts have been indicted in what that state’s Attorney General described as the first criminal case in the country against nursing home operators related to the pandemic. Late last month, Attorney General Maura Healey announced that Superintendent Bennett Walsh and former Medical Director…
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