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While the HIPAA Right of Access rule was first passed into law as part of the 2013 HIPAA Omnibus Rule, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been cracking down hard on violators of this rule in recent years. This provision requires covered entities to provide patients with a copy of their medical records in the form and format requested, or another agreed upon form, within 30 days of the initial request. If the covered entity is unable to fulfill the request in that timeframe, they may notify the patient in writing that they will need a 30-day extension. This notification must also notify the requestor of the date on which the records will be provided and only one extension is permitted.

Patient demand for better online and digital payment options has been increasing for years. In 2017, a survey found that 68 percent of patients want their healthcare providers to offer digital payments options. Two year later, in 2019, another study found that 81 percent of consumers wanted their healthcare providers to offer more online payment options.

Recently, online healthcare review site Healthgrades analyzed 2.4 million online reviews to create their 2020 Patient Sentiment Report. This report reinforces something that most people in healthcare already know, which is that online reviews can either make or break a healthcare practice. It also discovered that 75 percent of healthcare reviews mention quality of care and that “a patient’s opinion of a doctor can be dramatically influenced by the overall experience of the visit and interactions with office staff.” This means that, in order to encourage patients to leave positive reviews, there are additional things your practice needs to do beyond simply providing quality care (though that is still important, too).

According to a recent study, the number of in-person outpatient visits declined by nearly 60 percent in 2020. While there has been a small rebound in the first quarter of 2021, some practices are still struggling to get their patient volumes back to pre-pandemic levels. Telehealth has been able to help fill some of the gaps, but it is simply not enough to consider things as being back to “business as usual.” As vaccines roll out, however, now is a golden opportunity to begin new efforts to invite patients to return to in-person care as well as to invite new patients to your practice.

When it comes to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR), there has been some confusion as to just what these terms mean. This has led some to mistakenly use these two terms interchangeably, when they are in fact not the same and have different definitions and features. To help our readers better understand how to differentiate between them, this blog will provide an overview of EMR vs. EHR.

Even the most well-established practice can struggle to find ways to grow their business and acquire more patients. Oftentimes, this is due to budgetary constraints, especially in a market where profit margins can be thin and even more so for practices that are already overextended with new investments. However, there are plenty of ways to grow your practice without breaking the bank. In this blog, we will go over a number of cost-effective measures that you can employ to help grow your business.

We are entering a new era of healthcare, one where the patient is empowered to direct his or her own treatment. Patients are more informed and involved in their care than ever before and app developers are tapping into people’s desire to be involved in the decision making when it comes to their care. They also expect to be readily provided with their healthcare information upon request, and legislation has been passed that will require such requests be fulfilled in a timely manner.

The submission window for MIPS Performance Year (PY) 2020 closes on March 31, 2021. As one year closes another begins, and now is the time that practices should be preparing for their 2021 MIPS reporting. For the new year, the MIPS annual program requires submission of data in four categories—Quality, Promoting Interoperability (PI), Improvement Activities (IA) and Cost. In this blog, we will briefly go over actions to be taken throughout the year for submission in PY 2021 so that our readers can be better prepared for the next MIPS reporting period.