News — dental compliance

I talk with numerous dentists and staff about HIPAA compliance in their offices as I travel and lecture on HIPAA compliance. I am deeply concerned about dentist and staff members’ attitudes about HIPAA compliance. I’d like to share them with you to help you understand the attitudes I regularly encounter. You will see why I am concerned that the Office for Civil Rights (HIPAA police) is giving dentistry some special attention the next year or so. These are listed in no particular order: HIPAA Schmipaa – This is the bah-humbug of compliance with HIPAA and other government regulations. This is...

Sometimes when you mess up – and that mess up involves Medicare, Medicaid, or funds from another government healthcare program – not only do you have to fix the mess, but you may also have to go back and make amends to limit your liability and hedge against civil and/or criminal prosecution later. Hospitals do it. Physician groups do it. Ambulance providers do it. Home health does it. What? Get busted for coding, documentation, and billing problems. The federal government developed the Self-Disclosure Protocol (“SDP”) for healthcare providers to be able to bring themselves forward to the government in a...

In today’s environment, a practice website is a nearly essential element to a well-rounded marketing strategy. A strong website is an effective and cost-efficient way to promote a dental practice. It also can provide information to current and prospective patients. Practice websites are considered business promotion by Texas State Board of Dental Examiners and must comply with the Board’s rules regarding advertising.       Overall, the Board’s business promotion rules require dentists to communicate truthfully to the public. To that end, Rule 108.59 delineates the four essential disclosures required by dental practice websites. These components represent the minimum information...

On January 9, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), announced the first HIPAA enforcement action and settlement based on the late reporting of a breach of unsecured protected health information (PHI). Presence Health, a large Illinois healthcare network, settled potential violations of the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule by paying $475,000 and implementing a corrective action plan. The breach involved missing paper-based operating room schedules containing the PHI of 836 individuals. Information included individuals’ names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, dates of procedures, types of procedures, surgeon names, and types of anesthesia....

Ask yourself the following questions. Does anyone other than the dentist ever: Prepare prescriptions for controlled substances for the dentist’s signature? Call or fax prescriptions to a pharmacy? Handle controlled substances for ordering, inventorying, shipping/receiving, and/or preparing for the dentist’s administration to a patient? Look up patient/caregiver drug histories in the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP)? Look up the dentist’s prescribing history in the PMP? Transport controlled substances to a satellite office? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, your office should officially authorize the staff members who perform these functions to be in compliance with federal regulations regarding...