The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) does not mess around when it comes to patients’ rights of access. In its most recent case, the OCR fined UnitedHealthcare $80,000 because it took 6 months to comply with a patient record request.

You can avoid such a hefty fine – as well as bad press – by doing the following:

• Train staff on the HIPAA requirement to deliver patient records within 30 days of a request. (This applies whether the patient wants to see or transfer her own records to another provider).

• Require patients to submit these requests in writing (so you can have a paper trail of the request as well as of your office’s compliance with the request).

• Be compliant with all other parts of HIPAA (as any complaint to the OCR will be investigated and, when that occurs, the OCR can and will look at all of your HIPAA plans, processes and training materials).

If you would like more guidance on HIPAA compliance, please call us at 781-471-0915. We’re here to keep you, your employees and your patients safe.

Dr Lisa Kane
Dental Office Compliance of New England LLC
850 Washington Street, Suite 102
Dedham, MA 02026
mailto:Lisa@doc4ne.com
doc4ne.com
781.471.0915