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Hospitalization rates in Medicaid programs were lower in areas with a greater number of primary care physicians, and in states that on average provided more outpatient visits and paid more per outpatient visit, according to a study published in Health Affairs.
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The foundation that was laid for the operation of Arkansas' Cash and Counseling demonstration and the Independent Choices program was "unique from the very start," says Deborah Ellis, a program administrator with the Arkansas Department of Human Services' Division of Aging and Adult Services. "It truly was a spirit of teamwork on all levels to implement this new program."
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Patients at the Women's Hospital of Greensboro (NC) might have multiple visits during their pregnancies, which allows registrars to create an ongoing relationship, says Donald B. Conrad, patient access supervisor.
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Anna Dapelo-Garcia, administrative director of patient access services at Stanford (CA) Hospitals and Clinics, anticipates point-of-service (POS) collections will increase by more than $1 million in 2012.
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Members of the patient access staff at West Virginia University Hospitals East collected 110% more in 2010 than the previous year and are hoping to increase that by an additional 10% for 2011, reports Audrey Hodson, system director for patient access services.
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E-mail practices and mobile e-mail cause the most concern for data protection and regulatory compliance, according to the 830 individuals whose responses were included in a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and Zix Corp., an e-mail encryption service.
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During morning surgery rush times, registrars at Indiana University Health North Hospital in Carmel began monitoring the actual time patients were arriving in a database.
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More than 57,000 complaints of Privacy Rule violations were received by the Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) between April 2003 and December 2010. More than 250 large data breaches, defined as those involving the protected health information of more than 500 individuals, occurred in 2009 and 2010.
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Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, providers must use the new HIPAA 5010 transaction standards to conduct certain administrative transactions such as claims, remittance, eligibility and others, but not all providers are ready for the transition to new standards, and that lack of preparedness could affect transition to ICD-10 as well.
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Leon Rodriguez, the new leader of the government's HIPAA privacy and security enforcer, last served as chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
