March 2019 Digital Edition
March 17, 20191 min
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Record-breaking year for HIPAA enforcement
March 15, 201912 min
By Elizabeth Jepson and Allison Shelton, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ended 2018 with a bang by announcing a total $28.7 million collected in enforcement actions and settlements with healthcare providers under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The most recent settlement announced at the beginning of February (but negotiated in December 2018) was with Cottage Health, which operates four hospitals...
United we stand
March 14, 20196 min
Special to Medical Journal – Houston By TED SHAW, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Of Texas’ 254 counties, 70 percent are considered rural. Yet, just 160 of the state’s 600 hospitals are in rural areas. In addition to the shuttering of nearly 30 Dairy Queens and 87 of the Texas Department of Public Safety driver’s license offices in rural Texas, another rural hospital closed its doors in 2018. That brings the total to 20 since 2013....
Book Review: Integrative Addiction and Recovery
March 14, 20198 min
BY Victor S. Sierpina, MD, ABFM, ABIHM, Director, Medical Student Education Program, WD and Laura Nell Nicholson Family Professor of Integrative Medicine, Professor, Family Medicine University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Professor By now, we are all aware of the huge public health impact of addiction in our society. I introduce a resource for those of you facing this problem in patients, family, friends, or personally. It is a 2018 release from the Weil Integrative Medical...
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“Leaving [for] Las Vegas” and other scenarios: The challenges of employee leaves
March 14, 201910 min
By A. Kevin Troutman, Fisher Phillips Employers’ anecdotal comments and practical experiences show that management of employee leaves is still one of the greatest challenges human resources and legal professionals face, especially in the healthcare industry. The 24/7 service demand and relatively short supply of qualified, available workers make this challenge even greater. A typical scenario involves the manager of a busy department, where the workload is heavy and two or more employees are on...
Know your practice’s soft spots before the payer audit arrives
March 13, 20196 min
By Reed Tinsley, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHBC Focus on these hotspots to reduce audit risk. Even if your physician practice puts the strongest policies in place to prevent compliance missteps, a payer audit is always possible. If your practice performs regular self-audits, however, it could reduce anxiety about auditors at your door. Self-audits are one of the most important tasks for practices. Performing self-audits can also help you uncover the reasons behind revenue losses, claim...
Asisat Ope, M.D. joins Houston Methodist Primary Care Group at Sugar Land
March 11, 20192 min
Houston Methodist Primary Care Group is pleased to welcome Asisat Ope, M.D. to the Sugar Land practice located at 16605 Southwest Freeway, Medical Office Building 3, Suite 400 on the Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital campus. Ope’s new office offers patients added convenience, with on-site access to advanced and specialized care from Houston Methodist’s leading network of hospitals and specialty physicians. Ope provides acute, chronic and primary care for women, men, and children. She is...
New Chief Nursing Officer at Harris Health System’s Ambulatory Care Services
March 11, 20192 min
Toni Cotton is the new chief nursing officer (CNO) for Harris Health System’s Ambulatory Care Services, the primary and outpatient care arm of the safety-net healthcare system providing more than 2 million patient visits annually to residents of Harris County through its network health centers, school-based clinics, homeless shelters, and specialty facilities. Cotton, MHA, RN, BSN, a long-time resident of Katy, Texas, began her new role in January. She has more than 30 years of...