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Data Breaches: How Do We Keep Our Data Safe?

In the last month, multiple large-scale data breaches were reported by various entities, with 3 breaches reported in the past week alone. Unfortunately, even the most well-known entities do not stand a chance against increasing technological abilities of bad actors. Since the Equifax breach in early September, Whole Foods, Sonic, Deloitte and the Securities Exchange Commission, among others, had similar large-scale breaches affecting consumers across the country.

It’s Time for States to Get REAL

After years of waiting, the final implementation extension deadlines for compliance with the REAL ID Act of 2005 are near. The most recent extensions for certain states pushed the final compliance deadline to October 10, 2017. Assuming the Federal Government does not grant further extensions, by this date all 50 states must be compliant with the Act.

Insurance Plans and Opioids: Releasing and Raising the Barriers to Prescribe

With the opioid addiction epidemic continuing to rise in the United States, several insurance companies loosened the existing barriers to addiction treatment. Aetna Insurance Company joined Cigna and Anthem in removing key provisions in its insurance plans that require additional authorization prior to providing addiction treatment. At the same time, Cigna proposed to strengthen barriers to physician prescribing of opioids in an attempt to further address the opioid epidemic.

OCR Audits Subject To Phishing Hack

Christine Bulgozdi Associate Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2018   Back in November, the Department of Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released an alert stating that a phishing scam masquerading as an OCR Audit had been spotted being sent out to Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) covered …
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MACRA 101: MIPS and the Clinical Practice Improvement Reporting Category

Christine Bulgozdi Associate Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2018   The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (“MIPS”) is one of the two different payment methods that MACRA will use for eligible clinicians. Clinicians will be evaluated based on a single Composite Performance Score from four reporting categories: Quality, Resource Use, Advancing Care Information and …
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MACRA 101: MIPS and the Quality Reporting Category

Christine Bulgozdi Associate Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2018   The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (“MIPS”) is one of the two different payment methods that MACRA will use for eligible clinicians. MIPS replaces the existing fee-for-service model and is expected to be the payment track that most clinicians take. Clinicians will be evaluated …
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