News

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has announced a settlement with Manasa Health Center, LLC.  This settlement is the culmination of a complaint lodged with the OCR in April 2020. The complaint alleged that Manasa Health Center made an impermissible disclosure of a patient’s protected health information in response to a negative review posted online. The OCR launched an investigation to ascertain the accuracy of this allegation, and the findings indicated potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. These violations encompassed not only the disclosure of sensitive patient information online but also a failure...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a government agency that ensures safe and healthy working conditions by enforcing standards and regulations. If OSHA shows up at your healthcare or dental facility it's probably for an inspection. Here are steps to consider: Be Prepared: The best way to handle an OSHA inspection is to be prepared. This means having your exposure control plan and other safety policies in place, training employees, and regularly checking and maintaining your facility to avoid accidents and injuries. Our 2023 OSHA Compliance System for Healthcare or Dentistry has everything you need to get prepared; easily and affordably....

Hopefully your 2023 is off to a great start, but February is just around the corner already and that means unwanted solicitations threatening fines for non-compliance of posting requirements like OSHA's Form 300 and other labor posters. First off, anything that’s required to be posted like Minimum Wage, OSHA’s “It’s the Law!” and even Form 300 - Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, is available for free online. You can print posters at the Department of Labor (DOL) at https://www.dol.gov/general/topics/posters/ or OSHA’s content at https://www.osha.gov/publications/poster. Forms 300, 300A and 301 are a series of forms that documents the location and type of...

One of the most common questions we receive is to explain the difference between the two HIPAA regulations. Although the Privacy and Security Rule work together, they’re distinct have have a unique purpose. In a nutshell, the HIPAA Privacy Rule focuses on the rights of the individual and their ability to control their protected health information or PHI. It allows practices to use the information for treatment, payment and other required functions, but otherwise it must remain confidential. This is an assurance that the information will be safeguarded from unauthorized disclosure. The Privacy Rule covers the physical security and confidentiality...

 One of the more difficult concepts of hearing loss is that it’s referred to as a “cumulative and additive” phenomenon. It’s a slow process that usually results from small exposures over a long period of time. Due to this incremental progression along with the fact that it can be painless, hearing loss can go unnoticed until damage is already extensive and irreversible. OSHA sets the legal limits on noise exposure in the workplace. These limits are based on an employee’s 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) over a workday. For noise, OSHA’s permissible exposure limit (PEL) is an 8-hour TWA noise level...