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Hello,
In this issue
Expect
stricter HIPAA enforcement under HHS consolidation
The
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Office for
Civil Rights (OCR) will now be responsible for enforcing the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) security rule
in addition to the privacy rule. (The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services was previously responsible for the security rule). This
consolidation of HIPAA enforcement activity highlights the Administration’s
heightened scrutiny of security and privacy of health information. In fact,
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 mandates enhanced
patient privacy rights and physician practice requirements, increased
financial penalties for violations of the privacy rule and the security
rules and allocated additional resources for enforcement.
View the
Federal
Register notice of the delegation of authority to OCR.
Register
for MGMA’s
Aug. 27 Webinar on this topic to learn more about the effects of this
and other privacy changes on your practice.
Contact
Congress today to voice your healthcare reform concerns!
While
Congress is now in recess, its members are meeting with constituents and
Congressional leaders are currently crafting key healthcare reform bills to
be considered in September. Therefore now is the time for you to contact
your Senators and Representative and communicate your healthcare reform
concerns. Use the MGMA
Advocacy Center to tell your representatives to finally repeal the
Medicare physician payment formula and remind them not to link new payment
systems to this flawed update system. Urge them to include administrative
simplification proposals to reduce costs. Finally, remind them that as your
elected representatives, they should not delegate authority to make
important Medicare-related reforms to a non-elected entity.
Send
them an email
now using the MGMA grassroots message!
Recovery Audits to begin soon in South Carolina
The Recovery
Audit Contractor (RAC) for jurisdiction C recently posted seven automatic CMS-approved
audit issues targeting South Carolina. Demand letters could be
sent during August.
The
United States is divided into four RAC jurisdictions and practice
administrators should familiarize themselves with their
jurisdiction-specific sample demand letters to learn how to recognize a RAC
audit. Determine which jurisdiction your state is in by viewing the CMS
RAC map and then access the appropriate RAC sample letter:
Jurisdiction
A, DCS
sample letter
Jurisdiction
B, CGI
sample letter
Jurisdiction
C, Connolly
Consulting sample letter
Jurisdiction
D, HealthDataInsights
website (no sample letter posted)
For more
RAC information, visit the MGMA
RAC site,the CMS
RAC site, or order the MGMA
RAC on-demand Webinar.
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