On May 31, 2012, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Director of the Office of Civil Rights Leon Rodriguez issued a memo to consumers regarding those consumers’ right to access their protected health information and medical records. In this memo, Rodriguez stressed that it is important for consumers and…
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced yesterday that its Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Enforcement Training tools would be available to the general public today, June 5, 2012. Since 2009, as part of the Health Information Technology for Clinical and Economic Health (HITECH) Act, State Attorneys General…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it will release a national provider Comparative Billing Report addressing Home Oxygen Services. The release is scheduled for June 26, 2012. The CBRs are produced by Safeguard Services under contract with CMS and will provide comparative data to help show…
On May 29, 2012, Connolly added new approved issues to its Approved Issues List for providers in Region C states. The new approved issues are across five categories and include: • Medical Necessity: Other O.R. Procedure of the Blood & Blood Forming Organs MS-DRG 802, 803, 804 W/MCC, W/CC, w/o…
CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) expects to publish Comparative Billing Reports (CBRs) on Evaluation and Management (E/M) Services on June 4, 2012. Since 2010, CMS, through Safeguard Services (SGS), has produced national comparative billing reports in select fields. These comparative studies are designed to help providers review their…
On May 10, 2012 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District decided that criminal charges under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) do not require that an individual have knowledge that their actions are illegal. The case, United States of America v. Zhou, is the…
As part of healthcare reform, Section 6401(a) of the Affordable Care Act requires all providers and suppliers who enrolled in the Medicare program prior to March 25, 2011 to revalidate their provider enrollment under the new screening criteria. Providers and suppliers who enrolled after March 25, 2011 do not need…
On May 3, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced, via the CMS blog, that CMS will not require data collection by applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA) before January 1, 2013. The announcement indicates that the final rule will…
On April 27, 2012 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule that states new provider and supplier requirements. The final rule requires all providers and suppliers that qualify for a National Provider Identifier (NPI) to include their NPI on all enrollment applications for Medicare or…
From July 2011 to February 2012 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a performance audit of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) efforts to strengthen the screening of providers and suppliers applying to take part in, and currently taking part in, the Medicare and Medicaid programs. On April…