The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) stepped up HIPAA enforcement in a big way this year. The agency handed down more than $5 million in HIPAA settlement fines in one week in March, and in July reached a HIPAA violation settlement with Advocate Health Care in Illinois that carried a $5.55 million...
Credentialing Resource Center Journal - Volume 25, Issue 9
On July 25, the public comment period closed on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) proposal to grant full practice authority to advanced practice registered nurses (APRN). The regulation, which would allow APRNs to independently assess, diagnose, prescribe medications, and interpret...
If your organization is struggling with where to place a practitioner in one of your medical staff categories, you either have too few or too many medical staff categories. Consider arranging your medical staff categories into these four common categories.
Credentialing Resource Center Journal - Volume 25, Issue 8
My goal in consulting and writing is to help medical staffs move from a punitive or indifferent peer review culture to one that supports physician improvement and the pursuit of excellence. The good news is that peer review culture can change. But how do you get there? In my experience, there...
The Supreme Court of Texas (the "Court") recently held that a trial court failed to adequately review allegedly privileged documents?to determine if they were disclosable pursuant to an exception to the state's peer review statute--before issuing an order compelling Christus Santa Rosa Health...
It's impossible to calculate the amount of healthcare fraud that exists, as much of it slips under the radar. However, healthcare fraud poses a serious problem, putting the health and welfare of beneficiaries at risk while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Credentialing Resource Center Journal - Volume 25, Issue 7
With negligent credentialing suits on the rise, MSPs and medical staff leaders must implement approaches that help cultivate a high-caliber medical staff, promote patient safety, and diminish legal risk. But given the widening array of staffing models and technological advances at play in today'...
Once upon a time, key medical staff leadership positions (officers, department chairs, credentials chair, peer review chair) were viewed as important voluntary positions to help the medical staff carry out its board designated responsibility to ensure the care provided primarily by individuals...
