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COMPLIANCE AND HIPAA
Healthcare
compliance is fast becoming a crucial department within MBO/TRS. We maintain
Crowe (www.crowechizek.com/CC/home.htm) as our consultant in
compliance, HIPAA regulations, and training. We own and utilize the
software Healthcare Compliance Strategies (HCCS) for Medicare Fraud and
Abuse training. Our compliance department stands up to scrutiny of
healthcare systems with Corporate Compliance Agreements (CCA's) with The
Office of The Inspector General.
Our compliance manual includes the
seven essential elements of a compliance program.
Upon hire and during regular
intervals all of the employees are screened against the Sanctioned
Individuals List that the Office of The Inspector General maintains. All of
our employees are required to sign a Code of Conduct Form and attend
regular training.
As HIPAA regulations are starting to phase
into effect, it is very important that your outsourcing agency understands
and executes these regulations. The first area of HIPAA
implementation is in reference to electronic claims filing under the
required X12 data format. Jim Redar, our IS Director, sits on the national
X12 Insurance subcommittee and is active in the format development.
The second area of HIPAA pertains to
privacy of patient information. All our employees must understand and
execute a confidentiality agreement with our company.
Privacy regulations are included in
our compliance training.
The third area of HIPAA deals with
security of information. Although security regulations are still being
developed, MBO/TRS is taking the following steps to make our own information
system more secure: making frequent changes of user ID's and
passwords, improving firewall protection to prevent information breaches
from outside databases, implementing of security software and "RAID
5" disc drive protection.
Under HIPAA regulations, outsourcing
agencies are defined as a "Healthcare Clearing House" if they are
performing original billing services, or as a "Business
Associate" if the agency is acting as a third party, such as the
function of a collection agency. Healthcare providers and their
contractors, will be responsible for how they use, maintain, and disclose
the two following categories of information:
IIHI (Individually Identifiable
Health Information)
PHI (Protected Health
Information)
Our agency encourages regular
meetings between client’s compliance departments and our compliance
officer. MBO/TRS offers compliance and HIPAA training as one of our
offered services.
sales@mbo-trs.com
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