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Medical Records

Medical Records

Medical records

4 Factors to Consider When Creating Medical Record Guidelines

Your medical records are potentially the most important documents that your practice maintains, so creating guidelines around how they’ll be created, stored and handled can help you remain compliant. To develop guidelines for your medical records, check out four essential steps that your practice can’t afford to ignore. 1. Your Medical Record Policy Should Be […]
Published Date: January 24, 2023
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Amending medical records

5 Tips to Remember for Compliant Documentation Amendments

Contrary to popular belief, you can sometimes make amendments to medical documentation after the date of service, as long as you know the rules. The key is to ensure you’re following payer regulations, state laws and internal compliance guidelines that your practice has in place. As long as you check those boxes, amending the medical […]
Published Date: December 13, 2022
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Medical records storage

3 Tips Help You Decide Where to Store Protected Health Info

It’s no surprise that you must store patient medical records for a set amount of time—often up to 10 years—depending on your state rules. And if you don’t comply with this requirement, you could face fines up to $50,000 per violation. What you may not know, however, is that your responsibility doesn’t end once you […]
Published Date: September 14, 2022
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Medical records archiving

Archive/Destroy: Comply w/HIPAA Medical Record Access Rules

Archiving and destroying unused medical records may seem like the perfect solution to medical storage space issues (both electronic and paper). However, if you get it wrong, you can end up violating access to medical records rules. Before you destroy any information, be sure you’re not violating HIPAA by not being able to provide your […]
Published Date: April 28, 2022
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Teen records requests

Prevent Costly Errors When Denying Teen Record Requests

Knowing when you can deny access to a teen patient’s medical records is tricky, especially when it’s a parent making the request. To get it right, you must comply with complex federal and state regulations (depending on your state). Teen records requests. In general, there are 4 key situations (plus a new rule related to […]
Published Date: December 23, 2021
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Information blocking exceptions

Cures Act Rules: Master 8 Record Access Exceptions to Comply

How and when you grant access to your patient medical records is about to change. Effective April 5th, 2021, new federal guidelines require you to more readily grant access to your patients’ health information, or else. Information blocking exceptions. The regulation driving this change is the new 21st Century CURES Act (also referred to as […]
Published Date: March 16, 2021
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PHI Medical records

Protect These Surprising PHI Examples or Risk Medical Records Fines

Breaking medical records retention and destruction rules means big-time financial penalties — up to $50,000 per violation. And while you generally recognize the most common forms of protected health information (PHI) for example patient names and addresses, you’ll be surprised by the many, many types of patient information that are subject to medical records retention […]
Published Date: January 21, 2021
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Medical records copying fees

Avoid Copying Fees Violation, Pinpoint the Right Medical Records Rule

QUESTION: When a state has a cap on the allowed records copying rate, is there ever a situation that justifies exceeding the maximum allowance? Sometimes, the request for the records is for a long-term patient, so there are a lot of pages to copy. Would this case permit charging more than the allowed max charge […]
Published Date: October 22, 2020
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keep medical records

How Long Must You Keep Medical Records to Prevent Fines?

Retaining medical records for even one patient for the required amount of time is really confusing because there are so many laws you need to follow. But you must keep medical records long enough for all of your patients to protect yourself against hefty FCA violations (up to $50,000 a piece!) and other compliance penalties. […]
Published Date: July 28, 2020
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HIPAA Student Health Record

Restrict HIPAA Student Record Release or Face Violations

You could get hit with fines for violating HIPAA student health records’ rights unless you update your protocols based on new agency directives. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) updated HIPAA and privacy act laws on how to maintain students’ health records. Some situations allow […]
Published Date: January 28, 2020
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