Catherine Boerner (cboerner@boernerconsultingllc.com) is President of Boerner Consulting LLC in New Berlin, WI.
Well, this column is titled “Exhale.” This is something we need to do now more than ever.
I was already planning on writing about compliance officers being ready to change priorities before the coronavirus hit, but it takes on a whole new meaning now. It’s really hard to get my head around what is happening as I write this article. I cannot imagine what it will be like when you are actually reading this article in June. Right now, things are changing so fast in each state. Schools are closed. Bars and restaurants (other than drive-through lanes) are closed. In Wisconsin, where I live, coronavirus cases more than doubled overnight twice, first going from 46 to 106, then to 216.
What a stressful time for everyone—but especially for everyone working in hospitals and the healthcare industry. As compliance professionals, we all have to shift priorities while we are in this crisis. We can check in with the hospitals and other facilities and support all areas of the ongoing incident response plans.
The areas that are jumping out the most to me are patient privacy, EMTALA, and the temporary expansion of telehealth services. It is a very difficult time for compliance, and the fear caused by the pandemic can result in violations of patients’ privacy.
Public health departments need to be notified and have to perform tracers, as well as notify people who were in contact with patients that tested positive for the coronavirus. Of course, there is the section of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)[1] that allows disclosures of protected health information without authorization for public health reasons.[2] It states that a covered entity may use or disclose protected health information for the public health activities disclosures to collect or receive such information, for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease and providing information to a person that may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition if the covered entity or public health authority is authorized by law to notify such person as necessary in the conduct of a public health intervention or investigation.
Now is the time to keep checking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ and Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) websites for updates such as the OCR’s announcement of Notification of Enforcement Discretion for telehealth remote communications during the pandemic.[3]
We are all in this together, and everyone can only do the best they can. Be safe and stay healthy!