HCPro.com: Strategies for Health Care Compliance

News and real-life examples to increase the effectiveness of your compliance program. Strategies for Health Care Compliance will be your guide for avoiding fraud and maintaining compliance.

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July 2008 (Volume 12, Issue 7)	view entire issue

Get ready to audit POA
CMS completed its phased implementation of the present-on-admission (POA) reporting requirements April 1. That means your POA auditing strategies need to be in place now to ensure proper reimbursement later. The POA reporting initiative is part of a CMS program, mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, that requires quality reporting aimed at ferreting out hospital-acquired conditions. Under the program, all inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) hospitals had to begin submitting POA information for all Medicare inpatient discharges October 1, 2007.

Tools to teach physicians about HIPAA compliance
Training physicians about HIPAA compliance is difficult. Physicians can be independent and strong-minded, but compliance officers may perceive and describe physicians with these traits as old-fashioned and stubborn. But as senior leaders of the clinical staff, physicians are immersed in protected health information (PHI) all day. Training them to comply with HIPAA privacy and security requirements is daunting, but it's also necessary.

HIPAA quick quiz for physicians
Editor's note: Use this sample quiz to train your physicians on what they need to know about HIPAA privacy and security from HCPro's new online library for HIPAA privacy and security training. Answers can be found below. For more information, visit www.hipaa-education.com.

Use internal audits to find Medicaid problems
Today, you need to worry about more than Medicare billing errors. Medicaid investigations are on the rise, and it's time to take all the cautionary tales you see in newspaper headlines to heart. "Now more than ever, it's important to have an audit component to your compliance program," says Maureen Weaver, an attorney at Wiggin and Dana in New Haven, CT, who participates in internal and government Medicaid audits.

MQSA cites facility for lapse in timely scan-result reporting
Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA) inspectors appear to be making good on the FDA's promise to make sure facilities send out timely mammography reports to patients and physicians, according to the Mercy Suburban Hospital mammography facility in Norristown, PA, which underwent inspection in February. The inspector that visited Mercy looked for proof that: Lay reports were sent on time Fax versions arrived at their destination Tracking and auditing systems for these reports were in place

Other recently-published articles from Strategies for Health Care Compliance:

Coder vs. biller: Does this match have a referee?

Five tips to ensure laboratory medical necessity compliance

Train your staff with a compliance carnival

HIPAA and the modern blended, extended family

New York’s work plan serves as an audit cheat sheet

Patient status: Five tools to conduct internal audits

New ABN form means more options and more questions

Tips for compliant long-term care of short-stay patients

Help nurses and clinical staff comprehend compliance

Workers’ compensation: Understand rules for disclosures

Know your hospital’s rights

Use internal audits to find Medicaid problems

HIPAA quick quiz for physicians

Tools to teach physicians about HIPAA compliance

Get ready to audit POA

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