Featured Articles
Enterprise-wide PHI Disclosure Management: What Risk Managers Need to Know
Managing demands for secure disclosure of protected health information (PHI) has become more complex as each department within a health care organization potentially represents a point of disclosure. Multiple disclosure points place organizations at risk for privacy...
Building New Policies and Procedures to Incorporate Telehealth
Over the past year, telehealth has expanded through support from federal and state measures intended to increase access during the pandemic. In February 2021, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act to the US...
Bracing for potential records request change in the Privacy Rule
Covered entities (CEs) that have flirted with the 30-day mark for response time with patient requests for access to or copies of their protected health information (PHI) should take notice: they may need to get better. Two times better, that is. The Department of...
Leading a Release of Information Business During Extraordinary Times
When the impact of the pandemic upended the status quo in March 2020, health systems and organizations needed to completely change their operations and adopt a remote environment almost overnight. As a result, release of information (ROI) had to move employees out of...
Could HIPAA Changes Weaken Patient Privacy?
Proposed changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule could weaken patient data privacy protections, say Rita Bowen and Zachary Perry of the Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services. A notice of proposed rulemaking from the Department of Health and Human Services...
How to Implement and Support a Virtual Front Desk
More than a year since the outbreak of COVID-19, virtual walk-up windows for patient and family record requests have become the new normal. Fifty percent of traditional health information management (HIM) departments’ traditional walk-up windows remain closed. As HIM...
Understanding the Eight Exceptions to Information Blocking
The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT’s information blocking final rule, part of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), goes into effect April 5, 2021. At a high level, the final rule prohibits health providers, technology vendors, health...
HIPAA Challenges: Keep Pace With Disclosure Management Changes
Amid the pandemic and pressure to comply with new rules and regulations, hospitals and health systems are faced with unprecedented challenges. As a result, HIM professionals, who play a critical role in evolving areas such as privacy and security, release of...
HIPAA Audit Report Highlights the Need to Improve Patient Access
In the months before a transition to a new administration, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released the long-awaited 2016-2017 HIPAA Audits Industry Report, offering a look at the successes and shortcomings of select covered entities (CE) and business associates...
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