Learn how to implement the revised reporting requirements
BY GINA THRONEBERRY | JUNE-JULY 2018
In 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a proposed rule to improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses through the electronic collection of establishment-specific injury and illness data. After receiving comments on the proposal, OSHA issued the final rule that became effective January 1, 2017 (Occupational Safety and Health Administration 29 CFR Part 1904).
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July to December 2018
BY ALEX TAIRA | APRIL 2019
Since ASCA’s last update in July 2018, health care organizations across the country posted 163 breaches of protected health information (PHI) affecting 500 or more individuals.
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Negotiate better contracts and minimize expenses
BY DAN SCHNEIDER | SEPTEMBER 2019
Most ASC administrators wear multiple hats and manage myriad tasks. One of those hats is to keep a close eye on the recurring monthly expenses that keep the lights on and the business running in their ASC. Because these expense categories—such as telecom, waste hauling, property tax, bank fees, utilities and maintenance contracts—often cross departments, we sometimes see an underlying, unintentional mindset that should be addressed before the spend can be properly managed.
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Risks that are uninsurable or prohibitively expensive to insure might call for alternative risk transfer
BY BENJAMIN S. TERNER | SEPTEMBER 2016
In an ever-changing world, it is no secret that risks associated with ASCs also are evolving. Trends in medical risk transfer, however, are generally not related to ordinary risks but rather nontraditional—low frequency/high severity—risks. If these risks occur, they have the ability to bring a practice to a screeching halt. Examples of such risks include: loss or suspension of professional license, legislative and regulatory changes, cyber risk (breach of customer data and detrimental code) and related Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) violations.
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Congress passes site-neutral payment legislation
BY KRISTIN MURPHY | JUNE-JULY 2016
On November 2, 2015, congressional leaders and the Obama administration announced a bipartisan budget agreement that would fund the federal government for two years, raise the nation’s debt ceiling and stave off Medicare premium increases for beneficiaries. The final legislation, called the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, responded to a number approaching fiscal deadlines and leadership changes in the House that could have impacted the ability to strike such a deal.
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New systems benefit patients and staff
BY RICHARD W. SCHULE | JUNE-JULY 2019
Joseph Juran, a leading expert in the quality industry and author of Juran’s Quality Handbook—The Complete Guide to Performance Excellence, defines “quality management” as all activities of the overall management function that determine the quality policy, objectives and responsibilities and implement them by such means as quality planning, quality control and quality improvement within the quality system.
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