Over 8 million dollars were paid in just two settlements due to the lack of a business associate agreement. There are already quite a few cases that demonstrate the importance of formalizing your relationship with your subcontractors and making sure that those that meet the requirements of a Business Associate are treated as such. For example:
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06/012017
eClinical, a Massachusetts company agreed to pay $155M to settle claims that they falsely obtained their Electronic Health Record (EHR) certification.
Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act Providers and Organizations had the ability to claim a financial incentive for the implementation of electronic health records in their offices. Based on this incentive and the need to use a certified EHR over 125,000 providers selected to use eClinical. Regretfully, as stated in the Department of Justice’s release, eClinical’s product failed to meet the requirements of a certified EHR. While eClinical claims that they didn’t do…
05/302017
Increases efficiency, standardizes processes, reduces mistakes, minimizes liability, offers protection from breaches, simplifies training. If you don’t know what we are talking about the answer is simple; policies and procedures.
Some people consider policies and procedures an administrative burden that is simply a waste of time yet others not only understand the need for the same but consider these policies and procedures a critical part of any process.
Perhaps a brief discussion of processes may be an easier way to visualize the importance of policies and procedures as no fast food restaurant or manufacturer could survive without clear processes and…