Just one week ago, Medicaid in Connecticut did not cover telehealth services. Then, DSS issued Provider Bulletins 2020-09 and 2020-10 providing for emergency temporary telehealth coverage in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) issued Provider Bulletin 2020-14, which further expands Medicaid reimbursement to include telehealth delivered via telephone.
Tag Archives: HIPAA
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that its Office for Civil Rights, which enforces HIPAA, will not enforce requirements that are a barrier to making telehealth services available.
DHHS announced waivers of various compliance requirements for providers to ease administrative and operational burdens during this pandemic. I think the theme here is that providers just need to do the best that they can during these challenging times. Those that prioritize patient care, act reasonably and in good faith and do not commit fraud or abuse will be spared from enforcement actions.
Just over a week ago, a federal district court invalidated part of HHS’s 2016 guidance on the fees a covered entity can charge for patient records. The court found that HHS exceeded its authority when it declared that only a limited fee could be charged for records sent to a third party at a patient’s direction.
It appears that the 2019 HIPAA enforcement year is over with a lot less fanfare (and cash) than last year. The total in settlements and penalties for 2019 is $12.2 million, which is substantially less than OCR’s highest ever total of $28.7 million just one year ago.