Are You In Compliance?

When a cyberattack hits, your practice comes to a screeching halt. A compromised system can mean no access to schedules, billing or patient records. Learn how to proactively protect your systems, prevent cyber incidents and responsibly respond to a ransomware attack.

Analysts who answer The Dentists Insurance Company’s Risk Management Advice Line field thousands of calls about practice challenges — many of which are related to navigating paper and digital documents.

The increase and severity of  ransomware attacks prompted the Biden administration on June 2 to issue an open letter to business leaders asking them to treat the threat of ransomware attacks with great urgency.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, dentists and other prescribers in California must issue electronic-data prescriptions for both controlled and noncontrolled substances with very few exceptions. Paper prescriptions will no longer be allowed by state law. All pharmacies in California must be capable of accepting those prescriptions.

Health care organizations are receiving postcards disguised as official communications from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, according to an alert the OCR issued yesterday. 

Individuals and small-business owners should watch for suspicious or unexpected emails that appear to be from the Small Business Administration or that direct the recipient to the SBA’s website for COVID-19 relief. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration in a July 29 press release warns registered practitioners that scammers are posing as DEA employees in telephone calls in an attempt to defraud and extort victims. According to the DEA, the scammers are calling from spoofed DEA phone numbers.

The Americans with Disabilities Act and state disability rights laws require dental practices, as places of public accommodations, to make their services and facilities accessible to disabled individuals. This includes making a dental practice website accessible to those who are visually impaired. 

HIPAA fee limits do not apply to a patient’s request to transmit records to a third party or to a third-party’s request, with patient authorization, to receive patient health information, according to a notice released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

All businesses that are open to the public, including dental practices, should ensure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.