HIPAA Q&A: You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers!
HIM-HIPAA Insider, November 18, 2013
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM-HIPAA Insider!
Submit your HIPAA questions to Associate Editor Jaclyn Fitzgerald at jfitzgerald@hcpro.com and we will work with our experts to provide you with the information you need.
Q. I work in a long-term care facility and I would like to know if I am required to have business associate HIPAA agreements with our outside consultants? For example, physicians, ophthalmologists, podiatrists, psychologists, etc.
A. No, this is not a requirement. A business associate is an outside individual or company who needs access to PHI to provide a service on your organization's behalf. Physicians, podiatrists, psychologists, and other healthcare providers are not providing a service on your behalf. They are using PHI to provide patient care, and that does not make them your business associate. A true business associate would perform work on your behalf. This could include a vendor who makes follow-up calls to collect past due patient accounts.
Editor’s note: Mary D. Brandt, MBA, RHIA, CHE, CHPS, vice president of health information, Baylor Scott & White Health in Temple, Texas, answered this question for HCPro’s Briefings on HIPAA newsletter.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM-HIPAA Insider!
Related Products
-
Briefings on APCs
Worried about the complexities of the new rules under OPPS and APCs? Briefings on APCs helps you understand the new rules...
-
HIM Briefings
Guiding Health Information Management professionals through the continuously changing field of medical records and toward a...
-
Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies
Submitting improper Medicare documentation can lead to denial of fees, payback, fines, and increased diligence from payers...
-
Briefings on HIPAA
How can you minimize the impact of HIPAA? Subscribe to Briefings on HIPAA, your health information management resource for...
-
APCs Insider
This HTML-based e-mail newsletter provides weekly tips and advice on the new ambulatory payment classifications regulations...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- ICD-10-CM coma, stroke codes require more specific documentation
- Complications from immobility by body system
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Clearing up the confusion: CPT codes 76376 and 76377
- Neurological checks for head injuries
- Understanding and coding for critical care services
- E-mailed
-
- Use caution when applying modifier -25
- Study: Patients equally satisfied with virtual encounters compared to in-person visits
- Pneumonia with a negative chest x-ray: Clinical diagnoses, physician documentation, and coding guidelines
- Correctly bill ancillary bedside procedures in addition to the room rate
- Coding Corner: Tips for reporting bronchoscopy procedures
- Searched
