The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a HIPAA settlement after MAPFRE Life Insurance Company of Puerto Rico disclosed unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI).
HIPAA already contains such exceptions, so Christie’s suggestions are more political posturing than advocating for change.As needed to treat a patient, providers may disclose protected health information without the patient’s permission.
Recently, I asked a private practice LCSW whether she had HIPAA procedures in place. Her response? “I am my HIPAA procedure!” If only it were that simple.
The not-for-profit Florida Memorial Healthcare System (MHS) agreed to pay $5.5 million for a HIPAA breach.
Anyone who follows Erin or Connor on Twitter knows that we’ve been traveling lately … a lot! Within the month of April, Erin spoke at physical therapy association conferences in Florida, Missouri, and Illinois. We also traveled to California for a legal professional engagement (and a mini-vacation). For those who spent time with us during these travels, or just for those who’re antsing to get to know us better, here’s a few photos from the road.
High-spending hospitals can’t just start spending less while maintaining the same outcomes. Slicing spending without a plan for protecting patient health would spell disaster. To cut spending, they would need to implement strategic and complex approaches that insulate their outcomes from their expenditures – a tricky proposal.
The current 16-hour cap occasionally prevents doctors from seeing a surgery through from beginning to end, which may disrupt patient care continuity, and undermine medical team unity. These – proponents of the 28-hour shift argue – would be ameliorated by the increase.
Boozing before a procedure may impair a patient’s ability to knowingly consent to treatment, which presents liability and legal concerns.
A female ER patient cannot bear the burden of a provider’s biases. It’s crucial that providers – especially those in the emergency or urgent clinical settings – critically examine each patient, without regard for the patient’s gender. But what happens when these biases are unconscious (which they undoubtedly are in most circumstances)?
This week, I’ve been engrossed in the enthusiastic tweets coming out of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sections Meeting. And so, I wanted to take an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened in the year since I spoke at CSM in 2016.
