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Safe water to drink, bathe, cook and wash our clothing in is something most of us take for granted. Using clean water in your dental practice can be taken for granted as well! Water safety is an important consideration for dental offices as dental units, due to the s...

There is much to do to comply with all that HIPAA requires. First, consider ‘what’ you have to comply with (Privacy Rule, Security Rule and Breach Notification Rule. The Enforcement Rule prescribes Civil Monetary Pena...

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 o...

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 h...

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 b...

Whether your practice/dental service organization participates with Medicaid or not you could be required to fulfill the following annual training requirements....

Each year there are approximately 384,000 sharps related injuries to health care workers. That amounts to about 1,000 injuries per day at an average cost of about $3042 per victim. $1 Billion is spent annually on lab fees, testing, counseling, and post exposure follow ups f...

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 ...

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 a...

When a dentist or DSO (or any other healthcare entity) get busted for Fraud, Waste or Abuse (FWA) issues the government may decline criminal prosecution in favor of a civil settlement known as a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA). There is much to unpack about CIAs. Here i...