RE: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)
If the CE happens to be a small provider, I may (and that's a very big maybe) disagree, but would certainly air on the side of caution. The larger the CE, the more risk, expense, and potential for complaints leading to an audit. I think, depending upon state law, mailings may or may not be assumed received if mailed. In Tennessee, for example, if proof of mailing (unless this has changed in the last two years) exists, and no mail is returned, it is assumed to be received. I think, though, that it would be difficult if more than one person resides at any address to prove the information made it to the appropriate person. I guess I agree but hope for a workaround or glitch or loophole. Expense may be significantly increased on a perpetual basis: not good for business, but fabulous for preventative maintenance. Good point. Anyone else have input? Patricia Hamby HIPAA Compliance Project Manager XANTUS Healthplan of Tennessee, Inc. (615) 463-1612, Office (615) 279-1301, Facsimile http://www.xantushealthplan.com/hipaa/page3.html -Original Message- From: David Blasi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 5:00 PM To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List Subject: RE: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) Just wanted to add for some of those who aren't knee-deep in HIPAA that the acknowledgment requirement discussion is a health care provider issue. For health plans the acknowledgment requirement in 164.520(c)(2) is not applicable. Health plans should be able to satisfy their notice requirement via normal first class mail; just like mailing SPD's, COBRA notices, etc. Patricia Hamby [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/17/03 04:29PM Would this maybe fall under reasonable and may depend upon the size of the CE? Great question. Interested to see what others have to say. Patricia Hamby HIPAA Compliance Project Manager XANTUS Healthplan of Tennessee, Inc. (615) 463-1612, Office (615) 279-1301, Facsimile http://www.xantushealthplan.com/hipaa/page3.html -Original Message- From: Noel Chang [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 3:35 PM To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List Subject: Re: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) I haven't taken the time to research this enough to cite any references in support of my position, but my initial reaction is that just mailing the NPP is not adequate to make a good faith effort. The requirement is that you make a good faith effort to obtain written acknowledgment of their receipt of the NPP. If all you do is mail the NPP, what have to done to try and document they received it? If you have a return form for the patient to send back I guess you can then argue that you did do something to try and obtain their acknowledgment but is just a form with no return envelope or postage a good faith effort? I'd say no but that is just my opinion. Even if you included a return envelope and postage I don't know that I would consider that a good faith effort. The Rule says you have to distribute the notice by the first delivery of service. For the moment lets ignore electronic delivery of service or of the NPP. That aside, if you only have to deliver the notice the first time the individual physically sets foot in your facility, how hard is it to get someone to hand them a couple of sheets of paper and sign an acknowledgment? Keep in mind the acknowledgment is just that they RECEIVED the Notice. Not that they read it, not that they understand it. You can hand it to them, they can through it in the trash (hopefully a recycling bin so you can use it on the next patient), and you can still ask them to sign a statement that says they RECEIVED the Notice. Unless you are one of the rare entities that have implemented a truly paperless patient record system, you have a paper chart for every patient. Someone in your facility is probably handling that chart when the patient comes in. If the reception of patients into your facility is not centralized so you cannot hand out the forms at one patient check-in desk, then perhaps you need to de-centralize the distribution of the NPP. Whoever sees the patient needs to look at the chart and determine if the patient has received an NPP or if they need to be given one. One thing I am doing with some clients is implementing an NPP Receipt Acknowledgment form that is on a distinct color paper so you can immediately recognize whether or not there is an acknowledgment form in the chart. Remember you only need to get their acknowledgment once, even if you subsequently revise the Notice, so there is no need to look at the acknowledgment to see when they signed it, what version of the NPP they were given, or anything else. Just glance at the chart to see if there is a fuscia piece of paper (or whatever unique color you prefer). If there isn't, ask them to sign an acknowledgment form as you hand them a copy of your NPP. I work only
Re: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)
Dr. Fairley, My firm is recommending that the NPP be developed and implemented as soon as possible just for the reason you mention: otherwise every patient who walks in the door on 4/15 will need to be provided with this document, any discussion/questions, etc. If you can implement this part of the Rule now, by 4/15 only new patients or those who haven't been in for a few months will need to be provided with your NPP. By beginning sooner than 4/15 there's a secondary benefit: by that date this may be SOP for front desk staff. Unfortunately, mailing the NPP does not suffice as a good faith effort to obtain the individual's acknowledgement unless you use a signature-on-receipt mail service - which could get expensive. If you do include an acknowledgement form (that is a good idea, by the way), then your staff will only have to collect them. Some practices are updating their patient registration form to include a statement of acknowledgement. As you know, this is a good time of the year to have all patients update their personal insurance info. Jean Acevedo, LHRM, CPC, CHC ACEVEDO CONSULTING INCORPORATED 711 Golf Court Delray Beach, FL 33445 [EMAIL PROTECTED] On April 15, 2003, we are anticipating that we simply do not have the staff available to supply all patients that walk in our door with our NPP. It's hard to find someone to do a job like this for only 3-4 months! We plan to hire college students to accomplish this task when school let outs in May. Nevertheless, in order to be compliant with the April 15, 2003 deadline, is it acceptable to mail out our NPP to scheduled patients ahead of time? Is the fact that we are mailing them out (and let's say we can keep track of who got SENT one) sufficient in itself to meet the requirement of a Good faith effort to obtain acknowledgement of receipt of NPP? That is, is simply mailing out the NPP adequate? If such a plan is not adequate, what about if we included an acknowledgement form in the mailing and asked the patient to return the form (and we did NOT supply an envelop or stamp)? Would that be enough, even if no one returns it? Thanks. Rich Fairley MD Dubuque, IA --- 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: archive@mail-archive.com 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: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)
Would this maybe fall under reasonable and may depend upon the size of the CE? Great question. Interested to see what others have to say. Patricia Hamby HIPAA Compliance Project Manager XANTUS Healthplan of Tennessee, Inc. (615) 463-1612, Office (615) 279-1301, Facsimile http://www.xantushealthplan.com/hipaa/page3.html -Original Message- From: Noel Chang [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 3:35 PM To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List Subject: Re: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) I haven't taken the time to research this enough to cite any references in support of my position, but my initial reaction is that just mailing the NPP is not adequate to make a good faith effort. The requirement is that you make a good faith effort to obtain written acknowledgment of their receipt of the NPP. If all you do is mail the NPP, what have to done to try and document they received it? If you have a return form for the patient to send back I guess you can then argue that you did do something to try and obtain their acknowledgment but is just a form with no return envelope or postage a good faith effort? I'd say no but that is just my opinion. Even if you included a return envelope and postage I don't know that I would consider that a good faith effort. The Rule says you have to distribute the notice by the first delivery of service. For the moment lets ignore electronic delivery of service or of the NPP. That aside, if you only have to deliver the notice the first time the individual physically sets foot in your facility, how hard is it to get someone to hand them a couple of sheets of paper and sign an acknowledgment? Keep in mind the acknowledgment is just that they RECEIVED the Notice. Not that they read it, not that they understand it. You can hand it to them, they can through it in the trash (hopefully a recycling bin so you can use it on the next patient), and you can still ask them to sign a statement that says they RECEIVED the Notice. Unless you are one of the rare entities that have implemented a truly paperless patient record system, you have a paper chart for every patient. Someone in your facility is probably handling that chart when the patient comes in. If the reception of patients into your facility is not centralized so you cannot hand out the forms at one patient check-in desk, then perhaps you need to de-centralize the distribution of the NPP. Whoever sees the patient needs to look at the chart and determine if the patient has received an NPP or if they need to be given one. One thing I am doing with some clients is implementing an NPP Receipt Acknowledgment form that is on a distinct color paper so you can immediately recognize whether or not there is an acknowledgment form in the chart. Remember you only need to get their acknowledgment once, even if you subsequently revise the Notice, so there is no need to look at the acknowledgment to see when they signed it, what version of the NPP they were given, or anything else. Just glance at the chart to see if there is a fuscia piece of paper (or whatever unique color you prefer). If there isn't, ask them to sign an acknowledgment form as you hand them a copy of your NPP. I work only with small group practices and solo practitioners so I'm sure there are issues for larger players, asside from pure volume of patients, that I have not had to consider. I have to admit though, I never thought the requirement to distribute the NPP and obtain an acknowledgment would require any additional resources like part time employees. Noel Chang Noel Chang -- Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org) -- Original Message --- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 14:27:30 -0500 Subject: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) On April 15, 2003, we are anticipating that we simply do not have the staff available to supply all patients that walk in our door with our NPP. It's hard to find someone to do a job like this for only 3-4 months! We plan to hire college students to accomplish this task when school let outs in May. Nevertheless, in order to be compliant with the April 15, 2003 deadline, is it acceptable to mail out our NPP to scheduled patients ahead of time? Is the fact that we are mailing them out (and let's say we can keep track of who got SENT one) sufficient in itself to meet the requirement of a Good faith effort to obtain acknowledgement of receipt of NPP? That is, is simply mailing out the NPP adequate? If such a plan is not adequate, what about if we included an acknowledgement form in the mailing and asked the patient to return the form (and we did NOT supply an envelop or stamp)? Would that be enough, even if no one returns it? Thanks. Rich Fairley MD Dubuque, IA --- The WEDI SNIP
RE: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)
Just wanted to add for some of those who aren't knee-deep in HIPAA that the acknowledgment requirement discussion is a health care provider issue. For health plans the acknowledgment requirement in 164.520(c)(2) is not applicable. Health plans should be able to satisfy their notice requirement via normal first class mail; just like mailing SPD's, COBRA notices, etc. Patricia Hamby [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/17/03 04:29PM Would this maybe fall under reasonable and may depend upon the size of the CE? Great question. Interested to see what others have to say. Patricia Hamby HIPAA Compliance Project Manager XANTUS Healthplan of Tennessee, Inc. (615) 463-1612, Office (615) 279-1301, Facsimile http://www.xantushealthplan.com/hipaa/page3.html -Original Message- From: Noel Chang [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 3:35 PM To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List Subject: Re: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) I haven't taken the time to research this enough to cite any references in support of my position, but my initial reaction is that just mailing the NPP is not adequate to make a good faith effort. The requirement is that you make a good faith effort to obtain written acknowledgment of their receipt of the NPP. If all you do is mail the NPP, what have to done to try and document they received it? If you have a return form for the patient to send back I guess you can then argue that you did do something to try and obtain their acknowledgment but is just a form with no return envelope or postage a good faith effort? I'd say no but that is just my opinion. Even if you included a return envelope and postage I don't know that I would consider that a good faith effort. The Rule says you have to distribute the notice by the first delivery of service. For the moment lets ignore electronic delivery of service or of the NPP. That aside, if you only have to deliver the notice the first time the individual physically sets foot in your facility, how hard is it to get someone to hand them a couple of sheets of paper and sign an acknowledgment? Keep in mind the acknowledgment is just that they RECEIVED the Notice. Not that they read it, not that they understand it. You can hand it to them, they can through it in the trash (hopefully a recycling bin so you can use it on the next patient), and you can still ask them to sign a statement that says they RECEIVED the Notice. Unless you are one of the rare entities that have implemented a truly paperless patient record system, you have a paper chart for every patient. Someone in your facility is probably handling that chart when the patient comes in. If the reception of patients into your facility is not centralized so you cannot hand out the forms at one patient check-in desk, then perhaps you need to de-centralize the distribution of the NPP. Whoever sees the patient needs to look at the chart and determine if the patient has received an NPP or if they need to be given one. One thing I am doing with some clients is implementing an NPP Receipt Acknowledgment form that is on a distinct color paper so you can immediately recognize whether or not there is an acknowledgment form in the chart. Remember you only need to get their acknowledgment once, even if you subsequently revise the Notice, so there is no need to look at the acknowledgment to see when they signed it, what version of the NPP they were given, or anything else. Just glance at the chart to see if there is a fuscia piece of paper (or whatever unique color you prefer). If there isn't, ask them to sign an acknowledgment form as you hand them a copy of your NPP. I work only with small group practices and solo practitioners so I'm sure there are issues for larger players, asside from pure volume of patients, that I have not had to consider. I have to admit though, I never thought the requirement to distribute the NPP and obtain an acknowledgment would require any additional resources like part time employees. Noel Chang Noel Chang -- Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org) -- Original Message --- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: WEDI SNIP Privacy Workgroup List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 14:27:30 -0500 Subject: acknowledgement of Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) On April 15, 2003, we are anticipating that we simply do not have the staff available to supply all patients that walk in our door with our NPP. It's hard to find someone to do a job like this for only 3-4 months! We plan to hire college students to accomplish this task when school let outs in May. Nevertheless, in order to be compliant with the April 15, 2003 deadline, is it acceptable to mail out our NPP to scheduled patients ahead of time? Is the fact that we are mailing them out (and let's say we can keep track of who got SENT one) sufficient in itself to meet the requirement
