By Art Gross – “We’re being audited!” Those words strike fear and uncertainty in most of us – especially if you are in healthcare. But what actually happens in a HIPAA audit? Will a government official show up unannounced with a briefcase and ask for you to produce every bit of your business’s HIPAA documentation while sequestering your team in a conference room? Not quite.
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By Shane Whitlatch – It can be helpful to think of good compliance practices as preventive maintenance. It’s easier to have prepared all along than have to scramble to prove compliance when an audit comes up.
By Rita Bowen – The Health Care Compliance Association’s Compliance Institute is a must-attend event for provider, hospital and health system professionals working with any form of healthcare compliance.
By Jim Johnson – With all the recent turbulence in healthcare surrounding Meaningful Use, ICD-10 and now the transition to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, HIPAA has flown under the radar, in a sense, for some practices.
By Chris Apgar – The Office of Civil Rights is in the midst of the latest round of HIPAA audits. If your organization is a business associate (BA) or a covered entity (CE) and it’s not already prepared, you have a challenge facing you.
By Jim Johnson – With the first round of HIPPA Audits behind us, the Office of Civil Rights indicated back in March that it would finally launch the long-awaited round 2 of HIPAA audits in 2016.
By Mike Semel – The Office for Civil Rights announced that the new permanent audit program has started. On July 11 letters were sent BY E-MAIL (check your junk mail folders!) to 167 health plans, health care providers, and health care clearing houses (all HIPAA Covered Entities) notifying them that they have to send in documentation for a ‘desk audit.’ They will have 10 days to send in the required materials for review.
By Jonathan Krasner – Back in March, we reported that OCR had announced its Phase 2 Audit Program. OCR stated that they would compile a database of both Covered Entities and Business Associates to form the basis of the pool of organizations potentially targeted for audit. They have followed up on their intentions and in the last week organizations have started to receive contact emails from OCR.
By Bob Grant – The HHS Office for Civil Rights released an updated Audit Protocol that it plans to use while investigating health care entities for HIPAA compliance. The biggest change to the audit protocol is the distinction that OCR has made between what’s required of Business Associates and Covered Entities.