Re: CLAIMS ADJUSTMENT CODES

2003-03-07 Thread Doug Webb



Dee,
Yes, only the codes on the list may be 
used on a Complient claim. This applies now. CMS stated in the 
Federal Register that they won't enforce until October.

You can get the list from 
WPC.
http://www.wpc-edi.com/ClaimAdjustment_40.asp

Also, the Remark codes are 
at
http://www.wpc-edi.com/Remittance_40.asp

Also, the Remark codes are 
at

The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily the opinion of 
LCMH.

Douglas M. WebbComputer System EngineerLittle Company of Mary 
Hospital  Health Care Centers[EMAIL PROTECTED]

"This electronic message may contain information that is confidential 
and/or legally privileged. It is intended only for the use of the individual(s) 
and entity(s) named as recipients in the message. If you are not an 
intended recipient of the message, please notify the sender immediately, 
delete the material from any computer, do not deliver, distribute, or copy this 
message, and do not disclose its contents or take action in reliance on the 
information it contains. Thank you."



  - Original Message - 
  From: 
  Dee 
  Warrington 
  To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List 
  
  Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 04:13 
  PM
  Subject: CLAIMS ADJUSTMENT CODES
  
  My question relates to the transaction and 
  code sets rule -- but I am hoping one or more of you privacy gurus may be 
  versed in TCS as well.
  
  I was advised there are standard claim 
  adjustment codes and was wondering if these codes are the only adjustment 
  codes that can be used after 10/16?
  
  Any response is appreciated.
  
  Thank you.
  
  
  Confidentiality 
  Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole 
  use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged 
  information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is 
  prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the 
  sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original 
  message.
  ---The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is 
  not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views 
  of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of 
  the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official 
  opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at 
  http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for 
  commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and 
  services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal 
  disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time.You are 
  currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]To unsubscribe from 
  this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org 
  or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]If you 
  need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the 
  address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at 
  http://subscribe.wedi.org 
---
The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/.   These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services.  They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time.

You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org




RE: Unlocked charts

2003-03-07 Thread Rupe, Cindy
Title: Message



The 
OCR guidance states that a BA is not required:

With 
persons or organizations (e.g. janitorial sercie or electrician) whose functions 
or services do not involve the use or disclosure of protected health 
information, and where any access to protected health information by such 
persons would be incidental, if at all.

Thanks, Cindy

Cindy Rupe, RHIA, CPHQ HIPAA Coord/Consultant Billings Area 
IHS 406-247-7161 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
HIPAA Ready, HIPAA 
Compliant, and HIPAA Aware 

  -Original Message-From: 
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 
  10:15 AMTo: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup ListSubject: RE: 
  Unlocked charts
  This 
  was brought up in San Diego by the folks from OCR. One of them said her 
  owned doctor accused her of being "one of those people who are making us put 
  locks on our file cabinets." She stated that the requirement is to keep 
  the PHI private. If the file cabinet is in a patient area, it might be 
  wise to lock it. If it is out of a public area, the location may be all 
  that is needed to keep it private.
  *The 
  cleaning company should sign a BAA.
  
  
  Joanne 
  Marquez
  Senior Director 
  
  Beech Street 
  Corporation
  Account 
  Services
  (949) 
  672-1519
  
  

-Original Message-From: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 
Thursday, March 06, 2003 7:06 PMTo: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup 
ListSubject: Unlocked chartsThis has probably been covered before, but for those of 
us still not clear:Do charts have to locked up if they are within 
the area of the practice to which no one but employees who may need them 
have access? The cleaning crew would be in the same area at night. 
Thanks very much.Vicki SaundersPain Clinic Associates, 
PC[EMAIL PROTECTED]Pain Clinic Associates, PC 
Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this e-mail 
transmission is confidential information, proprietary to the sender and 
legally protected. Its purpose is intended for the sole use of the 
individual(s) or entity named in the message header. If you are not the 
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying 
or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is 
strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, pleasenotify 
the sender of the error and delete this message, any attachments and all 
copies. Thank you.---The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you 
are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore 
represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily 
represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you 
wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP 
Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should 
not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific 
vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a 
forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any 
time.You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]To unsubscribe from this list, go to the 
Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank 
email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]If you need to 
unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address 
subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at 
http://subscribe.wedi.org *Confidentiality 
  Statement - This Email is confidential. The information herein is intended 
  only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain 
  confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, 
  dissemination, or other use of this information by persons or entities other 
  than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you are not the intended 
  recipient, you must not disclose or use the information contained in this 
  E-mail. If you have received this E-mail in error, please contact us 
  immediately and delete (destroy) the 
  document.*---The 
  WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The 
  discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual 
  participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of 
  Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your 
  question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. 
  These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or 
  discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not 
  intended to be used as 

NPP

2003-03-07 Thread Traci Winter



Interesting occurrence just took place……

I just received a NPP from Guardian Life Insurance Co. It was put in my 
inter-office mailbox by our HR staff person. There is no acknowledgement form 
for me to sign.. Do they think by having my employer distribute them that 
they are not required to make a good faith effort to get an acknowledgement 
signed? Just seems a little off to me. Does anyone else find this a little 
lacking? 

Traci Winter 
Hospitals Home Health Care, Inc.
Fulton, NY
---
The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/.   These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services.  They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time.

You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org




RE: Unlocked charts

2003-03-07 Thread Hare, Dennis
Title: Message



Cindi, I have to 
disagree with you. The definition of a Business Associate is someone that 
"performs certain funtions or activities that involve the use of 
disclosure of protected health informatin on behalf of [my emphasis], 
or provides services to, a covered entity." A janitorial crew does not in 
any wayuse PHI to perform their job functions. A repairman (e.g. 
computer tech) might use PHI in order to recover or fix a problem, thus could be 
a business associate. However, privacy and security rules require a 
covered entity to take reasonable precautions to avoid improper 
disclosure. So, for a janitorial crew, that could mean keeping your files 
either in locked cabinets or behind locked doors, and keeping your desks 
clean. Our agency has a large records room with open shelving, so we lock 
the doors and the cleaning crew is never allowed in the 
room.



Dennis Hare
Quality Assurance Spec./Privacy 
Officer
Central Missouri Regional Center
(573) 882-9835 Fax - (573) 
884-4294
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: 
This e-mail communication and any attachments may contain 
confidential and privileged information for the use of the designated recipients 
named above. The designated recipients are prohibited from redisclosing this 
information to any other party without authorization and are required to destroy 
the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the 
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this 
communication in error and that any review, disclosure, dissemination, 
distribution or copying of it or its contents is prohibited by federal or state 
law. If you have received this communication in error, please notify me 
immediately by telephone at (573) 882-9835, and destroy all copies of this 
communication and any attachments.

  
  -Original Message-From: 
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 1:43 PMTo: WEDI SNIP 
  Privacy Workgroup ListSubject: RE: Unlocked 
  charts
  Cindy,
  
  The key work here is incidential. I 
  don'tfeel this would be an incidential disclosure since you know the 
  cleaning folks will have access to PHI. See text below from another list 
  about the topc.
  
  Date 1/16/03
  "...yesterday during a conference call 
  with 2,000 plus conferees, Linda Sanchez of DHHS clarified the incidental 
  disclosure concept in a way that I thought made sense and which I hadn't seen 
  discussed in the regulatory preambles or the recent OCR Guidance document. In 
  the context of someone coming in to your facility to do repairs on machinery, 
  for example, she said in sum or substance that if you know that a repairperson 
  *WILL* have access to PHI as part of her/his job to repair something, then 
  that is not an incidental disclosure, and must be addressed in a Business 
  Associate Contract".
  
  
  Cindi Bowman Quality and Compliance Coordinator Catawba County 
  Health Department 828-695-5847 
  
  
-Original Message-From: Rupe, Cindy 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 
12:48 PMTo: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup ListSubject: 
RE: Unlocked charts
The OCR 
guidance states that a BA is not required:

With persons 
or organizations (e.g. janitorial sercie or electrician) whose functions or 
services do not involve the use or disclosure of protected health 
information, and where any access to protected health information by such 
persons would be incidental, if at all.

Thanks, 
Cindy

Cindy Rupe, RHIA, CPHQ HIPAA 
Coord/Consultant Billings Area IHS 406-247-7161 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 

HIPAA Ready, HIPAA Compliant, and HIPAA 
Aware 

  -Original Message-From: 
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Friday, March 07, 
  2003 10:15 AMTo: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup 
  ListSubject: RE: Unlocked charts
  This was 
  brought up in San Diego by the folks from OCR. One of them said her 
  owned doctor accused her of being "one of those people who are making us 
  put locks on our file cabinets." She stated that the requirement is 
  to keep the PHI private. If the file cabinet is in a patient area, 
  it might be wise to lock it. If it is out of a public area, the 
  location may be all that is needed to keep it private.
  *The 
  cleaning company should sign a BAA.
  
  
  Joanne 
  Marquez
  Senior 
  Director 
  Beech 
  Street Corporation
  Account 
  Services
  (949) 
  672-1519
  
  

-Original Message-From: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 7:06 PMTo: WEDI 
SNIP Privacy Workgroup ListSubject: Unlocked 
chartsThis has probably been covered before, but for those 
of us still not clear:Do charts have 

RE: Unlocked charts

2003-03-07 Thread CBowman
 
Thank you for your input.  I agree 100% with you.  Do you mind if I
privately share your response with the person that misquoted Ms. Sanches's
response?  I hate for her to be misquoted.  The person may want to recheck
their notes and post a correction to the other list where they quoted her.

Cindi 

-Original Message-
From: Huber, Cheri
To: Cindi Bowman; Huber, Cheri; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 3/7/03 6:52 PM
Subject: RE: Unlocked charts

Cindi,
 
I totally agree that the term incidental disclosure would not apply in
such instances.  For an outside service provider, such as a building
maintenance contractor, to actually 'access' the PHI would require
physical action on the part of the service provider, such as opening a
filing cabinet.  That's obviously not an 'incidental' disclosure.
(Unless, and this is purely facetious, the inside of the filing cabinet
was being serviced.)
 
About Ms. Sanches's response, (my apologies for misspelling her name
previously), I only mean to suggest that perhaps she either did not
clearly understand the question or that her response was somehow
misinterpreted.  I  attended The HIPAA Summit West in June of 2001 at
which Ms. Sanches spoke and recall that the response to a similar
question was that a BA agreement was not required.  Knowing that Ms.
Sanches was largely responsible for the content of the OCR Guidance and
having heard her speak on several occasions I have the utmost regard for
both her expertise and her opinion.
 
My previous response was directed to the statement that a business
associate agreement was required in instances such as that described. I
merely wanted to point out that that is incorrect and emphasize the fact
that reasonable safeguards ARE required.  
 
About obtaining a BA agreement when such is not necessary, (pursuant to
a strict reading of the rule and commentary), I absolutely agree there's
no harm in doing so. In fact, obtaining the assurances inherent to a BA
agreement is the best 'due diligence' approach.  However, that isn't
always an option, such as in situations where the CE has no leverage to
use to persuade a service provider to enter into such an agreement which
is not required by law.  In those circumstances the CE must look to
other means to obtain adequate assurances and should consider all such
options from a risk management standpoint. Such other means may include
requiring a confidentiality agreement and/or installing locks.  That's a
call the CE must make and, regardless of the final course of action, the
reason for such decisions must be thoroughly documented.
 
Cheri
 
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 12:57 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Unlocked charts
 
Cheri,
 
My position is this situation is not an incidential disclosure, do you
disagree with that?  It was Linda Sanchez of DHHS that said a BAA was
needed.
 
Like you, my concern is also the stipulation of your quoted text that
provided reasonable safeguards are in place.  I don't think an
unlocked filing system to be appropriate safeguards when an outside
service has complete unsupervised access to PHI.
 
I also have a concern over the stipulation of your quoted text where
any access to protected health information by such persons would be de
minimus, if at all.As I stated above, the outside service has
complete unsupervised access to PHI.  
 
I agree that a confidentiality agreement would provide additional safety
but don't see where a BAA would cause harm, if not add additional
protections where appropiate safeguards are not in place.
 
Cindi Bowman 
Quality and Compliance Coordinator 
Catawba County Health Department 
828-695-5847 
 
-Original Message-
From: Huber, Cheri [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 3:27 PM
To: Cindi Bowman; WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List
Subject: RE: Unlocked charts
Cindi, 
 
I must respectfully disagree with yours and Joanne's positions and
suggest that perhaps Ms. Sanchez's comments were ambiguous enough as to
permit a misunderstanding.
 
In support of my opinion that a business associate contract is not
required with a janitorial service nor a repair service, assuming such
service is typical of its type, I would refer you to the commentary
section of the August 14, 2002, modifications to the privacy rule.  The
following is from page 53252 of the Federal Register:  
 
The Department also clarifies that a business associate contract is not
required with persons or organizations whose functions, activities, or
services do not involve the use or disclosure of protected health
information, and where any access to protected health information by
such persons would be de minimus, if at all. For example, a health care 
provider is not required to enter into a business associate contract
with its janitorial service because the performance of such service does
not involve the use or disclosure of protected health