Legal

The increasing prevalence of electronic health records should help address the issue of illegible medical records in the future. If you write notes by hand, however, you must take the time to ensure that your medical records are legible, accurate, and specific. We share pointers to help you communicate with other healthcare professionals and create a good legal document for evidence should one be needed.

The federal government is increasing its efforts to detect overpayments in the Medicare program. We detail the steps to take now, before a notice arrives, and points to consider should your practice receive a request for a recovery audit contractor audit.

Massachusetts, the only state that requires its citizens to hold health insurance, held hearings in March about lower health insurance costs.

In diagnosis cases, you don't have to be right, but you do have to be reasonable.

Throughout the healthcare reform process, the AMA remained actively engaged in an effort to ensure that the physician voice was heard.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a monumental step toward providing Americans with affordable coverage, but there are uncertainties, according to the American College of Physicians.

A new white paper released by the Department of Health and Human Services? Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology highlights five options and recommends additional research in relation to consumer consent possibilities for electronic health information exchange.

The leader of the AAFP believes the healthcare reform bill is flawed but does benefit independent primary care physicians.

Two physicians' groups urged changes to the CMS' proposed definition of meaningful use of an electronic health record in the days before the rule's public comment period closed in mid-March.

A compliance plan can help protect your practice from allegations of healthcare fraud. Learn what such a plan should and should not include.

Two Texas nurses were cleared of criminal charges for using patient information to file a complaint against a family physician.

Several laws in addition to the federal False Claims Act and the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act require careful attention.

Michigan physicians are fighting a receipt tax in the state's 2010-11 budget proposal.

The HITECH Act was swept into law as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It affects many aspects of your HIPAA compliance and means increased enforcement and harsher penalties for violators. Here's what you need to know.

When it comes to accommodating people with hearing, visual, mobility, speech, and other impairments, the ball has been in the physician's court since Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect in 1992.

The False Claims Act (FCA) prohibits the "knowing" submission, or causing of a submission, of a false claim to the federal government. The Federal Enforcement Recovery Act extends the reach of the FCA to medical practices that fail to notify the government of overpayments received. This situation creates potential liability for practices that fail to pay careful attention to their billing and collection processes.

In May, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and 15 hospitals statewide will try to reduce preventable hospital readmissions.

The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act took effect in April 2009.

President Obama's $3.8 trillion 2011 fiscal year budget contains earmarks that will benefit primary care physicians, according to the AAFP.

Medical practice leaders continue to experience administrative challenges reporting data for Medicare?s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, according to results of a survey recently released by the Medical Group Management Association. Specifically, respondents reported difficulty accessing the feedback reports and said that the presentation of information in the reports was not satisfactory.

Several factors will determine whether converting traditional IRA assets to Roth IRA assets is the right decision for you.

National and state organizations representing physicians were among 118 organizations that sent a lettter to House and Senate leaders supporting equality of Medicaid and Medicare rates for primary care services.

Connecticut AG sues Health Net of Connecticut in January for failing to secure private medical records and financial information of 446,000 enrollees.

With healthcare fraud now estimated to be a $100-billion-a-year enterprise, the federal government has developed new tools to aggressively pursue fraud.

Dermatologists and oncologists are the physician specialist groups most likely to communicate with patients online, according to the latest physician report, "Physicians in 2012: The Outlook on Health Information Technology," from pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research.

Two academic medical centers and one rural hospital will be recognized with Stage 7 awards, representing attainment of the highest level of electronic health record adoption as judged by HIMSS Analytics, at the 2010 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society annual meeting in March in Atlanta.

Healthcare cost control is the overarching theme for 2010, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute's "Top 10 health industry issues in 2010" report.

Electronic health record systems hold much promise for the future of healthcare, but improvements are needed before their benefits can be fully realized, according to two commentaries published in the February 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The watchdog group Patient Privacy Rights has released its first personal health record privacy report card in an effort to educate and protect consumers.

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is updating its electronic health record technology certification programs to conform to the interim final rule recently released by the Department of Health and Human Services.