News — dental compliance

Cyber security threats are continually evolving and they pose a very real and significant threat to dental practices. Ransomware is malicious software that takes over a victim’s hard drive when they click on an infected advertisement, email, attachment, or website and encrypts the contents of a device – and any other connected electronics – which the hacker then demands bitcoin or cryptocurrency payments to unlock. With an adequate data backup, you may be able to recover from a ransomware situation, but you will still have a mess to deal with. The HHS-Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is the federal agency...

More practices today are use electronic dental records. There are certainly pros and cons of doing so, which is beyond the scope of this blog post. What is important is that the software used today allows providers to template their notes, which are often necessarily-detailed. The problem with using templates, especially those with pre-populated answers are whether the answers accurately reflect the patient presentation, diagnostic test results (i.e. x-rays), the dentist’s findings/recommendations, and (ultimately) treatments provided. If yes, great! If no, oh no!

One recent afternoon I received a call from a dentist (I’ll call him Dr. Bob) who had hired me to give compliance lectures for his group of fellow dentists. I had a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Bob who always seemed to appreciate my expertise. I often wondered why he never hired me to ‘do my thing’ to help spiffy up his practice. That day Dr. Bob called for this exact reason, but under duress. He didn’t need a cover up, he needed a makeover and I was the man for the job.   The dentist hired an employee...

Physician practices and hospitals routinely audit for compliance, risk management, revenue cycle and quality of care issues.  They don’t necessarily like it, but they’ve settled into the routine of doing it to minimize their losses in the ever-increasing fight for dollars between providers and payors. Sadly, few dental practices audit patient records. A lot can be learned from auditing including identification of incomplete or inadequate documentation and/or paperwork, missed billing opportunities, issues that can result in recoupments (even criminal prosecution), and a host of other issues.   A dentist’s work is only as good as his records. It is said...

There’s a rumor going around town. A new drug dealer has moved in. You soon find out… the rumor is about you. You are the new drug dealer in town. How? Let’s find out. It is important that dentists know and understand that issues related to controlled substances can be quite devastating. I will demonstrate. First, a few questions: Are your prescription pads and sedation drugs maintained under lock and key at all times? Who has access to them? If you print prescriptions using your dental software what safeguards do you have to prevent your employees from printing forged prescriptions?...