As part of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General's current focus on nursing facilities, the OIG recently released a report entitled: Skilled Nursing Facilities Often Fail To Meet Care Planning and Discharge Planning Requirements. From the OIG summary: Skilled nursing facilities (SNF) are required to develop a care plan for […]
Category Archives: Nursing Facilities
Engage With Grace
As patients, as family members, as friends, as health care providers, we have all faced end-of-life issues at one time or another, and we will face them again. And again. Having been through this process twice in the past year, I can only repeat that it is important to have The Talk, to help ensure […]
Health Reform: What's a Provider to Do?
What should health care providers be doing in anticipation of the likely passage of an historic health reform bill? There are at least three possibilities: (1) Lament the passing of the good old days and oppose it; (2) Insist that it isn't good enough because it is lacking some key provision (tort reform; SGR replacement; […]
Health Law Basics Plus: Two-day seminar in Boston this week
Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education puts on its annual two-day extravaganza introduction to health law this week (November 4-5). I'll be speaking on post-acute care, and there is an all-star panel of speakers filling out the entire two days. If you are — as they used to say — within the sound of my voice and […]
HITECH Act security breach rules now effective; federales give a six-month pass. Now's the time to kick compliance efforts into high gear
Two key Son of HIPAA rules mandated by the HITECH Act are now effective. Both the FTC and HHS have finalized their security breach notification requirements and have assured the regulated community that they have six months to get their collective houses in order. Please take the time to peruse both the HHS Son of […]
Red Flags Rule: The FTC piles on, because HIPAA, ARRA and overlapping state laws just weren't enough
Update 5/28/10: Red Flags? Nah … nothin' but blue skies. The FTC delays implementation of the Red Flags Rule yet again, to December 31. Update 11/3/09: The FTC announced that implementation of the Red Flags Rule will be delayed once more, this time until June 1, 2010. The announcement came on the heels of losing […]