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There can be murky situations in which the right interpretation of HIPAA is not obvious, says Patricia Wagner, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Epstein Becker Green in Washington, DC.
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A proposed change to HIPAA might help healthcare providers alert law enforcement agencies that a persons mental illness should be considered when allowing a gun purchase, an action that is made difficult and sometimes impossible by the convergence of HIPAA and state laws.
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Reducing prescriptions of high-risk antibiotics in hospitals by 30% could lead to 26% fewer cases of deadly diarrhea infections, according to new advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Overly strict compliance with HIPAA threatens patient safety and quality of care, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.
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With providers increasingly skittish about violating HIPAA but uncertain about exactly what is required, some IT professionals see an opportunity to improve data security, says Mick Coady, principal and co-leader of the Health Information Privacy and Security Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the financial services and consulting company in St. Louis.
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State laws can vary significantly regarding a providers options when responding to a whistleblower.
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>In a major change from past policy, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a final rule amending the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) regulations and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations to permit CLIA-certified laboratories to provide copies of completed test reports to patients (or their representatives) upon request.
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In the first settlement with a local government, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reached an agreement with Skagit County, WA, about HIPAA violations.
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A mother gave birth to a premature child with multiple physical and cognitive impairments after physicians failed to timely admit the mother to the hospital and subsequently failed to administer treatment that would have prevented brain damage and respiratory distress.
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The lawsuit against Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI, filed by Catherine Puetz, MD, outlines the incident that led to her dismissal.
