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CMS tightens rules for processing claims; Upcoming hospice educational events.
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Does the HIPAA security rule prohibit transmission of protected health information (PHI) by e-mail? Are health organizations responsible for the protection of unsolicited e-mails sent by patients? If an employee, other than field staff, works out of his or her home, either full-time or part-time (e.g., during maternity leave, on weekends or evenings, or as part of a telecommuting job description), do the HIPAA security regulations apply? If so, how do we ensure compliance?
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An evaluation of Arkansas Medicaid Cash & Counseling program, in which enrollees direct their own personal care services, indicates that people in the program are much more likely to receive such services than are those who were eligible for services but had to get them in the usual way.
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Although most Americans say they would prefer a low-tech approach to death, the opposite is happening, with more than 20% of terminally ill patients dying in intensive care, according to an article in the March issue of Critical Care Medicine, the journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
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Palliative care consulting is much the same as other types of consultations in health care. In general, consultation is a type of service in which one provider seeks the opinion or advice of another provider regarding evaluation or management of a specific problem.
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Same-day surgery managers were apprehensive about periodic performance reviews (PPRs) by the Joint Commission. However, the response has been so positive to the self-evaluation required at the midpoint of an accreditation cycle that the Joint Commission will make the PPR an annual requirement beginning in 2006.
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A new 34-page booklet, Risk Management Pearls for Nurses: Focus on the OR Setting, is available from the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management of the American Hospital Association (AHA).
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Walter LC, deGarmo P, Covinsky KE. Association of older age and female sex with inadequate reach of screening flexible sigmoidoscopy. Am J Med 2004; 116:174-178.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that some reprocessed single-use devices (SUDs) no longer can be distributed commercially.
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While laparoscopic cholecystectomies have become common at many same-day surgery programs, laparoscopic exploration of the common bile duct may be less common due to available equipment and potential damage of flexible scopes.
