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.
Are you still struggling to comply with the new requirements of the HIPAA omnibus final rule? A new toolkit offers sample policies, forms, and checklists that can help.
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 permissible to take pictures of patients (including behavioral health) for identification purposes as a part of the registration process? Do the patients need to sign a consent form before their picture can be taken?
It's a brave new world out there for business associates (BA). BAs needed to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule and the use and disclosure provisions of the Privacy Rule in February 2010 as a result of the HITECH Act. However, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) held off on any enforcement activities-that is, until recently.
Every healthcare organization should develop and implement a policy and a well-defined process that provides guidance for managing incident and breach response.
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.
