Five Tips to Protect Your Company from Data Breaches
By Troy Hawes
Senior Director of Cybersecurity Consulting, Moss Adams LLP
By Jon King
Cybersecurity Consulting Manager, Moss Adams LLP
As the business world becomes increasingly digital, it’s more important than ever that organizations invest in cybersecurity. Data breaches can put not just an organization and its employees at risk, but also its patients, customers, and clients. The aftereffects of a data breach can be just as costly as the loss of the information itself. Depending on the scale of the breach, an organization’s reputation could become significantly damaged, driving down profits and jeopardizing customer and client relationships, leading to future loss of business. Read article
Thinking Outside the Excel Spreadsheet: Healing the Workplace Culture
By Danna Beal, M.Ed.
International Speaker, Author and Coach
The large hospital conference room was quiet when I walked in, but the emotional temperature in the room of highly trained healthcare employees was high. Their faces revealed stress, anxiety, frustration, and for some, resignation. When I asked about the workplace culture, people squirmed, shifted their gaze and then, after a few moments, their responses began spilling out. Read article
The Insanity of Treating the Insane
By Craig B. Garner
Founder, Garner Health Law Corporation
Not long ago, health care practitioners treated mental illness by severing connections in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. Surgeons employed this procedure known as “the lobotomy” to reduce symptoms of mental disorder. Those who survived the lobotomy sometimes experienced relief from mental illness as well as less spontaneity, responsiveness, self-awareness and self-control. While the lobotomy has drifted off to medical obscurity, 75 years later an estimated 20 million Americans still embrace the idea that restricting the intellectual and emotional range of the sick mind also cures it. Read article
How Optional is Optional? The Interim Payment Assessment under the Patient Driven Payment Model
By Ellie Tucker, Attorney, Polsinelli
By Bragg Hemme, Attorney, Polsinelli
As the cost of healthcare continues to rise and disparities Beginning October 1, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) will overhaul Medicare Part A payments to skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”), moving from a RUG-based methodology to the new Patient Driven Payment Model (“PDPM”). SNFs will be paid a per diem rate based on how a resident is classified with respect to five different case mix components: physical therapy (based on the resident’s primary diagnosis and functional status); occupational therapy (based on the resident’s primary diagnosis and functional status); speech language pathology; nursing; and non-therapy ancillary (based on comorbidities or use of extensive services), plus a non-case mix base rate. The per diem rate is variable over time, to account for the presumed decrease in costs and necessary services over time. Read article
The Who, Where, Why and What You Should Do Next with the California DMHC’s Expanded Licensing and Exemption Requirements
By Cindy Ehnes, Esq., Principal, COPE Health Solutions
By Allen Miller, Principal & CEO, COPE Health Solutions
Effective July 1, 2019, the California Department of Managed Health Care (“Department” or “DMHC”) is requiring organizations under certain conditions to file their risk contracts with DMHC. California managed care organizations, medical groups, risk bearing organizations (RBOs), clinically integrated networks (CINs) and any entities looking to enter into upside or downside financial risk agreements will need to understand who needs to file (and who does not), what to file and when to file. Also important is the consideration of the longer-term strategy to address new opportunities and potential pitfalls amid increased oversight. Read article