"The Time to Prepare for a HIPAA Audit is Now" John Mulligan for Northern Ohio Physician

June 1, 2015

News

HIPAA audits conducted by the government are expected to begin soon HIPAA-covered entities (such as healthcare providers and health plans) and their business associates will soon face governmental audits of their HIPAA compliance. According to some sources, covered entities and business associates may have just two weeks to respond to the auditor’s request for information. As a practical matter, it will be impossible for a covered entity or business associate to bring its “HIPAA compliance house” in order within such a short period of time. Furthermore, reports have indicated that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services might disregard documents created or modified after receiving the information request. Therefore, the time to prepare for a HIPAA audit is now.

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Skilled nursing facilities will soon be required to significantly expand their reporting of ownership and control information on newly updated CMS-855A forms. Private equity companies and other organizations like real estate investment trusts have been named as one of the reasons that the expanded reporting for SNFs has been implemented. As such, these organizations should be aware that they may be a part of this reporting through a number of routes.

Over the past 24 months, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has brought notable enforcement efforts against several non-profit covered entities and business associates, resulting in instances of six and seven-figure penalties against providers across the county for incidents involving breaches of protected health information.

A new amendment to New York state law, which would have required all healthcare providers to obtain separate consents from patients for treatment and payment is on hold until further guidance is released, according to the New York Department of Health.

"The Time to Prepare for a HIPAA Audit is Now" John Mulligan for Northern Ohio Physician

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