Medical identity theft is on the rise and healthcare organizations need to ensure they are authenticating a patient's identity before providing medical services and products.
Although it hasn't released many details yet, OCR plans to resume its audits to assess compliance with HIPAA privacy, security, and breach notification requirements in 2014. The government agency also plans to expand the audit focus to include business associates (BA).
Knowing when a breach occurred is one of the keys to reducing the risks associated with a breach of unsecure protected health information (PHI). Another is speedy mitigation.
Q. Is it acceptable for admitting and patient registration staff to photograph patients upon check- in for identification purposes? Is it permissible to take pictures of behavioral health patients for the same purpose?
The healthcare industry is changing rapidly, and if you've been paying attention to the news you've probably noticed the recent wave of hospital mergers.
