This coming fall, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will issue the long-awaited updated requirements that long term care facilities must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. At just over 112,000 words, the proposed rules and their implications to LTPAC providers are overwhelming.
Faxing of personal health information (PHI) is allowable by the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In this article, we give you a bit of background into the HIPAA Privacy Rule and give some best practices in faxing and emailing incident reports to QA Reader.
It seems whenever I ask long term and post-acute care providers whether they use paper forms, they respond apologetically: “Yes we use forms, but we know we shouldn’t.” Most providers think that there’s something inherently wrong with collecting information on paper. There isn’t. Paper is data, too.
Many QA Reader subscribers rely on our innovative data stream to identify, document, and report professional and general liability incidents to their Insurance carriers. Timely reporting of incidents to your insurance carrier is your obligation, and carriers can deny an incident or claim if it isn't reported in a timely basis.
Someone once told me that interoperability was like a unicorn: everyone has heard of it, but no one has actually seen it. Why is interoperability so hard to come by? One major reason is that most healthcare software companies fear it when they should embrace it.
Preventing Bedsores - American College of Physician publication ACP Publication March 26, 2015
Nursing staff education is one area that is targeted when assessing risk and when investigating incidents. However, it is often the first area targeted when balancing the budget in this world of ever dwindling resources.
Implementing electronic health records systems in long term and post-acute care (LTPAC) organizations is costly. Successful EHR implementation takes considerable money, time and energy. EHR vendors and experts cite improved management processes, better referral source integration, and regulation compliance as key benefits..
HUD/FHA provides mortgage insurance on loans that cover housing for the frail elderly. Known as a Section 232 loan, these loans help finance nursing homes and assisted living facilities. HUD loan guidelines cover multiple operational and financial areas, including insurance and risk management. More and more HUD is requiring lenders to follow specific risk management guidelines that QA Reader is designed to meet.
