Accurately and Thoroughly Conduct a HIPAA Security Risk Analysis – Or Risk a $100,000 Fine (or More)

On the surface, it seems like an obvious choice – follow the law and avoid the risk of a hefty fine – but health care providers may learn the hard way that implementing HIPAA Security Rule requirements is, in fact, more complicated than it might first seem. According to a recent U.S. Department of Health …

Ohio Expands Telemedicine to Include Teledentistry

Telemedicine is a relatively new concept that allows healthcare providers to treat patients via the Internet through varying technology platforms, such as FaceTime or Skype. While the practice initially started as a means for healthcare providers to treat patients in rural or remote areas who were far away from local health facilities or in areas …

Preventing Malpractice Claims and Strengthening the Doctor-Patient Relationship with Cultural Competence

A 2017 Medscape survey indicated that over half of responding doctors had been sued for malpractice.  The number one reason?  Failure to diagnose a medical condition, given by 31% of respondents.  Nearly half of doctors surveyed who were sued for malpractice spent between eleven and fifty hours in court, meetings with lawyers, or in other …

Costs Down; Quality Up

How can providers increase quality of care while reducing cost to patients?  The answer is through innovation, creativity, increased patient responsibility, partnership, and real-time flow of information.  Here are just a few ideas to consider in reaching this overarching goal.  While none of the ideas articulated below are novel or groundbreaking on their own, they …

Is Your Physician Organization Complying with Antitrust Law?

It is not uncommon for a physician organization to act as an intermediary between its physician participants and third-party payers to facilitate the negotiation and acceptance of reimbursement rates and other payer contract terms. However, when facilitation becomes negotiation and a PO accepts contracts with third-party payers on behalf of physician participants, also known as …