HHS Announces Rule to Protect Consumers from Surprise Medical Bills

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management, issued “Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part I,” an interim final rule that will restrict excessive out of pocket costs to consumers from surprise billing and balance billing. Surprise billing happens when …

HHS Finalizes Historic Rules Providing Patients More Control of Their Health Data

March 9, 2020 HHS Finalizes Historic Rules Providing Patients More Control of Their Health Data The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today finalized two trans-formative rules that will give patients unprecedented safe, secure access to their health data. For more information check out the links below. References: This information was taken from …

Hurricane HIPAA Update – Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands

September 21, 2017 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Update “Hurricane Maria” The HHS Secretary ‎Thomas E. Price, MD declared a Public Health Emergency in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands due to Hurricane Maria on Tuesday, September 19, 2017. You can find the OCR’s latest guidance on Hurricane Maria, limited waiver of HIPAA …

Hurricane and Medicare Disaster Related Claims Information:

CMS News Updates: Disaster Exceptions/Exemptions for Medicare Certified Providers Affected by Severe Storms and Flooding: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exceptions under certain Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs to acute care hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, …

HOMELAND SECURITY REPORTS – PETYA RANSOMWARE ATTACKS:

Compliance Update:  June 27, 2017 HOMELAND SECURITY REPORTS – PETYA RANSOMWARE ATTACKS: The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team aka US-CERT is reporting Petya ransomware infections occurring in networks in many countries around the world. Petya ransomware encrypts the master boot records of infected Windows computers, making affected machines unusable. Open-source reports indicate that the …