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The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was legislated in 1996 with the primary aim of ensuring that employees who are in the process of changing or leaving their jobs do not lose their health insurance benefits. Additionally, HIPAA sought to bring down health care fraud and abuse by mandating pan-industry standards for the protection of health care information and automated billing and other related processes, and for ensuring the security of Protected Health Information (PHI). What is a HIPAA Security Audit? A HIPAA Security Audit is a program under the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Audit Program of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). A HIPAA Security Audit is carried out to make sure that the policies, processes and controls on the part of Covered Entities comply with the provisions of the HITECH Act of 2009. Adherence to the requirements laid out by HITECH is mandatory. Given the high degree of continued use of new technologies that go into and will continue to go into electronic records of patients and the criticality of the data contained in them; the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recognizes that there could be chances of data breach of Protected Health Information. It is to prevent the occurrence of these breaches that a HIPAA Security Audit is mandated by the HITECH Act. Reporting of data breaches is mandatory The foremost highlight of the HITECH Act is the requirement that Entities covered by HIPAA report data breaches that affect 500 or more employees to the HHS. The OCR lays out an Audit Protocol, with whose policies, protocols and processes a facility has to comply if it is said to be compliant with the HIPAA Security Audit. Why is it necessary to carry out a HIPAA/HITECH Security Audit? Compliance with HIPAA Security Audit is necessary to demonstrate that a practice or business is well protected. The most important reason for which such entities need to be HIPAA/HITECH Security

How many of us are comfortable with the idea of visiting a new place with an itinerary of a surgery in the middle of your vacation. Maybe many won't fancy it. But if market research is to be believed worldwide the medical tourism is growing at the rate of 25-30% year after year.

Overview: I will be talking to specifics of HIPAA and the emergency room setting, do's and don'ts as well as dispelling myth vs reality. This lesson will be addressing how compliance officers need to get their HIPAA house in order as HIPAA is now fully enforced and the government is not using kid gloves any more. It will also address major changes under the Omnibus Rule and any other applicable updates for 2016 and beyond. There are an enormous amount of issues and risks for hospitals these days especially with the new legislation involving patient cash remedies for wrongful disclosure. I will speak on specific experiences from over 17 years of experience in working as an outsourced compliance auditor, expert witness on HIPAA cases within the ER, and thoroughly explain how patients are now able to get cash remedies for wrongful disclosures of private health information. More importantly I will show you how to limit those risks by simply taking proactive steps and utilizing best practices. Why should you Attend: What can and can't we do in the hectic emergency room with patient information? What are the new liabilities involved? How can we ensure security but also ensure patient care? This once rarely enforced law has changed and you need to know what's going on! What factors might spurn a HIPAA audit? …are you doing these things? Why are the Feds enforcing after all these years? State laws are now also more strict increasing liability for patient remedies! We will be discussing some of the changes taking place in Washington with the Health and Human Services in regards to the enforcement of the HIPAA laws already on the books. I will go over some of the new changes specifically affecting the emergency room setting I will also be discussing factors might cause an unwanted visit or letter from the Office of Civil Rights and how to prepare for a potential audit Areas Covered in the Session: Updates for Omnibus Emergency Room Do's and Don'ts in the ER Ambulato

The emerging discipline of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments Over the past few years, Hospitals Management Performance Assessments have begun to gain acceptability and credence in healthcare circles. Hospitals Management Performance Assessments came into being as a result of a conscious effort by advanced countries, mainly European, with sufficient backing from the World Health Organization (WHO) to arrive at some sort of metrics to evaluate the critical functioning levels of hospitals. The topic of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments came to acquire proper shape and structure following the heavy reference the WHO made to this discipline at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Health Systems of June 2008. The following year, it found resonance again, when it was the theme of the World Health Day. The evaluation of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments Hospitals Management Performance Assessments started to evolve primarily to provide healthcare professionals with a tool to diagnose the quality of performance of the hospitals and other healthcare settings they work in. It was felt, over time and experience, that when strict appraisals were being made in many areas of healthcare, a set of parameters to assess the level of efficiency of hospitals would go a long way in ensuring the implementation of enhanced processes, leading to better patient outcomes. Areas of concentration for Hospitals Management Performance Assessments The core disciplines in which Hospitals Management Performance Assessments sought to bring about measurable and verifiable improvements were: The PATH approach As a result of discussions and deliberations the WHO held with many countries, primarily European, a path for charting out the course of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments was concretized in the form of what the WHO called the PATH - the Performance Assessment Tool for Quality Improvement in Hospitals. A brief understanding of PATH PATH

It is important to ensure food safety in hospitals Hospitals being what they are - where patients of almost all kinds visit or stay - are very potent sources of infection. Infection can arise from any part of the hospital. They can spread from patients to patients, from caregivers to patients, from patients to caregivers, from patients to support or administrative staff and vice versa, and so on. An often overlooked source of infection and contamination is the food that comes into hospitals. Food safety in hospitals is a very important element of hygiene First, an understanding of food safety in the context of hospitals is necessary. Food safety in hospitals is described as the scientific way by which food is prepared, handled and stored in hospital settings. Any food that is prepared in hospital kitchens are, like food prepared in other places such as canteens, hotels and restaurants and even homes, sourced from outside. This food comes from suppliers whose hygiene has to be ensured. Food hazards can come in many forms, including, but not limited to: Biological Chemical Physical Allergenic Hazards an Several other contributing factors It is in the process of procuring materials for food and preparing it in hospital kitchens that a major part of food safety in hospitals is compromised. There has to be a thorough mechanism to ensure that all these producers and suppliers follow regulatory requirements in ensuring that the food they produce and supply to hospitals is clean and safe. Literally thousands of patients get infected from over 250 kinds of bacteria, parasites and viruses when they consume food prepared in hospitals. Findings of a recent study It is pertinent to recall the findings of study done in May 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. It carried out an examination of chicken supplied to and prepared in a hospital in this city. An astounding four fifths of these chickens were known to have been infected with E.coli, leading to its possible transmission to pati

Overview: I will be talking to specifics of HIPAA in the hospital setting, , do's and don'ts as well as dispelling myth vs reality. This lesson will be addressing how compliance officers need to get their HIPAA house in order as HIPAA is now fully enforced and the government is not using kid gloves any more. It will also address major changes under the Omnibus Rule and any other applicable updates for 2016 and beyond. There are an enormous amount of issues and risks for hospitals these days especially with the new legislation involving patient cash remedies for wrongful disclosure. I will speak on specific experiences from over 17 years of experience in working as an outsourced compliance auditor, expert witness on HIPAA cases within the hospital setting, ER setting, and thoroughly explain how patients are now able to get cash remedies for wrongful disclosures of private health information. More importantly I will show you how to limit those risks by simply taking proactive steps and utilizing best practices. Why should you Attend: What can and can't we do in the hospital setting with patient information? What are the new liabilities involved? How can we ensure security but also ensure patient care? This once rarely enforced law has changed and you need to know what's going on! - there are new liabilities! What factors might spurn a HIPAA audit? …are you doing these things? Why are the Feds strictly enforcing after all these years? State laws are now much tougher increasing liability for patient remedies! We will be discussing some of the changes taking place in Washington with the Health and Human Services in regards to the enforcement of the HIPAA laws already on the books. I will go over some of the new changes specifically affecting the hospital as well as the emergency room setting I will also be discussing factors might cause an unwanted visit or letter from the Office of Civil Rights and how to prepare for a potential audit Areas Covered in the Sessi

With more than a 100,000 practitioners in this discipline; medical coding is catching up as a viable profession for many in the US and away. Medical coding is emerging as a completely specialized profession in the healthcare sector. This is how the core of their professional work needs to be understood: Uses of medical coding On the face of it, medical coding is used for filing healthcare claims, but the usefulness of this profession goes beyond this. The data churned out by medical coding helps healthcare professionals make more accurate diagnosis and help in enhanced treatment protocols. Ensuring accuracy in medical coding is crucial to administering proper healthcare. Medical coding not only ensures a systematic and standardized manner in which third parties claim payment; the critical data that medical coding generates can be harnessed for further use The information contained in medical coding data in the form of medical codes is a precise indicator of a patient's health history. This information, when refined, helps actuaries take decisions on making investments for their business By feeding policy makers and public health departments with important information on the incidence of diseases, medical coding also fosters proper allocation of resources to the particular segment of the healthcare industry about the kind of services that the community requires at a given point of time. This leads to an improved outlook for the general health of the patient population and reduces wastage of fund allocation. Learn more on this topic by visiting : http://bit.ly/23ajt0v

HIPAA Enforcement trends : Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a legislation of the American Congress. HIPAA enforcement consists of taking steps to confirm that rules set out in HIPAA are being complied with by the requisite entities. Primarily passed with the intention of ensuring that employees do not lose their health insurance benefits when they change or leave their current jobs; this 1996 law also has the protection and security of Protected Health Information (PHI) as one of its chief aims. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces actions relating to HIPAA, imposes harsh penalties on healthcare organizations and Business Associates and Covered Entities that are proven to be in noncompliance of HIPAA requirements. What are HIPAA enforcement actions? The actions that the OCR takes to ensure implementation of HIPAA provisions constitute the essence of HIPAA enforcement actions. There are a good number of areas which the OCR can cite as constituting cases of HIPAA violations or noncompliance. A look at recent HIPAA enforcement actions point to a trend. These trends serve as an indicator of what to expect from HIPAA enforcement actions, which will help entities get some idea of what they should implement and what they should not and thus prevent being cited by the OCR. Security risk assessments are the foremost element of HIPAA enforcement actions: A look at recent trends suggests that HIPAA enforcement actions mainly target security risk assessments. This leads to harsh penalties, as happened in the case of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP). The hefty $ 4.8 million penalty slapped in 2014 on this hospital was for data breach caused by insufficient security risk assessment. While this is the biggest sum fined; the OCR issued at least three other hospitals for putting in place inadequate security risk assessments in 2014. Risk management comes a close second: If inadequate security risk assessments come first in te

Overview: Many infectious diseases were historically confined to specific geographical regions. However, some now pose global threats due to ease of travel, globalization of trade and commerce and global warming. Government Agencies, non-Profit Organizations, Philanthropic groups and others are also funding vaccination programs for regions where infectious diseases are endemic and to deal with new outbreaks.. Such developments are stimulating research in and the development of improved vaccines, their manufacture and control. Supply Chain complexities and stability issues need to be addressed to cope with transport of vaccines to and their use in climatically hostile regions. Programs to address such challenges need to be implemented, being resourced by appropriately trained and qualified staff from a number of disciplines. Development programs for immuno oncology products also require staffing by similarly skilled professionals. Workers currently engaged in Discovery, Development and Manufacture of conventional medications , or those seeking career-change opportunities can develop an understanding of the concepts, constraints and opportunities associated with Vaccine products by attendance at the Webinar. Engineering professionals involved in facility construction, or repurposing can also benefit as can Regulatory Affairs Professionals or staff at medicines Evaluation Agencies. The subject matter is particularly suited to professionals who are expert in the various disciplines associated with conventional medications ("so-called "small molecules") who wish to expand and develop their skills by involvement in vaccine-related programs including immuno-oncology. Areas Covered in the Session: History of and development of vaccine concepts. undamentals of vaccination Vaccine Types Administration of Vaccines Future Concepts Immuno-Oncology Vaccine Manufacture Who Will Benefit: Regulatory Affair Managers Project Management Personnel QA Managers Scientists Technol

Overview: The objectives of this course will be to go over the specific risks associated with business associates as it relates to HIPAA compliance. I will uncover myths versus reality as it relates to this very enigmatic law based on over 600 risk assessments performed as well as years of experience in dealing directly with the Office of Civil Rights HIPAA auditors. Times have changed and unfortunately many businesses are losing clients or unable to get new clients due to problems with their compliance program or lack of a compliance program. I will demonstrate from real life audits conducted by the Federal government what your highest risks are for being fined (some of the risk factors may surprise you). In addition this course will cover the highest risk factors for being sued for wrongful disclosures of PHI and the manner in which patients are now using state laws to sue for wrongful disclosures. States are being encouraged by the Federal government to implement new laws to remedy their citizens. Why should you Attend: Protect your business! Business associates are now required to comply directly with the HIPAA legislation! Many businesses are losing clients or unable to get clients because of compliance issues. We will be discussing the changes taking place in Washington DC with the Health and Human Services in relating to new risks business associates face under HIPAA. I will also be discussing factors might cause an unwanted visit or letter from the Office of Civil Rights and how to prepare for the audit and deal with the Feds Areas Covered in the Session: Updates for 2016 What to do if a client requires more than just a signed business associate agreement Fines Policy and Procedure Who Will Benefit: Any business associates who work with medical practices or hospitals (i.e. billing companies, transcription companies, IT companies, answering services, home health, coders, attorneys, etc) Speaker Profile Brian Tuttle is a Certified Professional in H

Overland Optical, you will never be treated like just another appointment. Our experienced doctors and responsive staff members will make sure you always feel welcome and well cared-for during your visit.

Your vision is likely to be one of your most valuable senses, you want to consider your visit to the eye doctor as important an opportunity to review your health status as your regular checkup with your physician.