Ensuring compliance with healthcare regulations is critical for any healthcare organization. One of the most significant regulatory bodies is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which conducts rigorous inspections to ensure that healthcare providers meet required standards. A CMS inspection can feel daunting, but your organization can excel and pass confidently and easily with proper preparation. Having a trusted compliance partner and the proper documentation for policies, procedures, and training can help you successfully navigate a CMS inspection. Understanding C ..read more

Nursing policies and procedures are often updated and reviewed annually, which is why continuous training is needed for clinical staff. Hospital policies and procedures for nursing present a variety of barriers to efficient tracking, including resource limitations, insufficient time, and inefficient management. Hospital administrators are often seeking ways to improve their approaches to policy-making and tracking adherence to those policies. More facilities are opting to utilize robust software solutions to better manage policy documentation and a consistently shifting policy landscap ..read more

Early this morning a worldwide Microsoft outage was reported resulting from a bug fix pushed by CrowdStrike. The update caused affected users’ systems to be completely down, halting businesses across the globe using the security tool CrowdStrike Falcon as their cyber protection. Of particular concern is how this has affected patient care, as several hospitals have reported that they were among the victims of the botched security update. Hospitals Reporting Outages As millions of Microsoft users deal with outages, hospitals, health systems, and medical practices have made statements on h ..read more

Billing errors alone are causing significant financial losses for the healthcare industry, on the order of $935 million per week. With the U.S. consistently hemorrhaging money through wasteful practices, more healthcare organizations are opting to use third-party medical billing companies to reduce the chance of errors within their billing operations. It’s becoming more well-known that billing is one of the most common compliance risk areas outlined by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Behind this is the difficulty that billing departments have with existing risk factors such ..read more

No one likes to think their organization will experience a hazard or cybersecurity threat. However, not planning for such cases puts employees at risk and threatens patient care and privacy. That’s why every hospital, private practice, and healthcare company needs an incident response plan to anticipate physical hazards and digital security breaches and mitigate their impacts. What is an Incident Response Plan and Its Benefits? An incident response plan enables compliance officers and other organizational leaders to take necessary and timely actions when accidents and security breaches ..read more

Employee surveillance is continuously rising significantly in a landscape favoring remote operations. At least 80% of employers are using some type of system to enhance how they monitor employees for various tasks. This surveillance isn’t only to keep an eye on employees but to ensure they are continuously safe online while utilizing certain networks. However, surveillance across different industries isn’t only about monitoring employees’ activity online. It’s primarily based on tracking progress with safety and general training to ensure workers are fully equipped and prepared to do t ..read more

In June 2024 the OCR Breach Portal listed 46 incidents affecting 3,825,082 patients. The most affected group was healthcare providers, reporting 33 incidents affecting 3.5 million patients. This was followed by business associates who reported 6 incidents, affecting 273,373 million patients. Health plans also reported 7 incidents, affecting 25,905 patients. We’ll examine what caused June 2024 healthcare breaches and how they could have been prevented. 31 Hacking Incidents Affected 2.5 Million The majority of the time, hacking incidents are the main cause of healthcare breaches, and in J ..read more

Protecting sensitive patient information is more important than ever. With advancements in technology, medical offices are increasingly relying on electronic data storage and communication systems, making it crucial to maintain strict compliance with HIPAA regulations. To help healthcare providers navigate this complex landscape, we have compiled a comprehensive HIPAA compliance checklist specifically tailored to medical offices. Understanding HIPAA Compliance: A Brief Overview Before diving into the specifics, let’s take a moment to understand what HIPAA compliance is all about. The He ..read more

In managing your organization’s healthcare compliance, your responsibilities include protecting patients, staff, and other stakeholders in an unlikely but devastating crisis. Emergency preparedness not only safeguards patients and staff but also preserves and manages valuable resources and reduces the impact of crises when they do occur. That’s why it’s essential to understand and apply the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Rule for Emergency Preparedness. The CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule Defined The CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule requires that organizations receiving Medicare ..read more

Compliance with healthcare regulations protects patients, safeguards employee safety, and maintains the security of electronic medical records (EMRs) and cyber networks. Ensuring compliance with critical regulations falls on the compliance officer. If you hold this position, you likely understand what’s at stake in protecting health information and preventing fraud, abuse, and adverse incidents. This article reviews the roles and responsibilities of an officer overseeing an organization’s healthcare compliance activities. We also discuss the steps and best practices that can guide you ..read more