Home Health & Hospice Week

Compliance:

BE PREPARED -- STIMULUS PLAN STRENGTHENS HIPAA RULES

Many HIPAA regulations are now applicable to your business associates. If you've been lax in overseeing your HIPAA compliance, now is the time to shore up those processes. The stimulus bill, known as the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" (ARRA),strengthens the HIPAA requirements that health care providers--including home care providers--face, increases penalties for privacy breaches, and creates restrictions on how you can share protected health information. Important: The law will require your business associates to implement policies that establish administrative and technical safeguards; those associates could face fines or penalties if they breach the HIPAA rules. "ARRA does not distinguish among business associates," says attorney Edward Leeds with Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll in Philadelphia. "To the extent that ARRA applies the privacy and security rules to any business associate, it applies them to all business associates," he says. However, that doesn't mean that all HIPAA requirements apply [...]
You’ve reached your limit of free articles. Already a subscriber? Log in.
Not a subscriber? Subscribe today to continue reading this article. Plus, you’ll get:
  • Simple explanations of current healthcare regulations and payer programs
  • Real-world reporting scenarios solved by our expert coders
  • Industry news, such as MAC and RAC activities, the OIG Work Plan, and CERT reports
  • Instant access to every article ever published in Revenue Cycle Insider
  • 6 annual AAPC-approved CEUs
  • The latest updates for CPT®, ICD-10-CM, HCPCS Level II, NCCI edits, modifiers, compliance, technology, practice management, and more