Patients expect not only quality health care to keep them healthy, but also trust that their most sensitive health information will be protected from threats and vulnerabilities that could lead to the compromise of one's health information. An enterprise-wide risk analysis is not only a requirement of the HIPAA Security Rule, it is also an important process to help healthcare organizations understand their security posture to prevent costly data breaches

On August 02, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final rules related to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System. Finalized changes will support patient-centered care by reinforcing the MyHealthEData and Patients Over Paperwork initiatives.

On June 18, 2018, the Office for Civil Rights issued new guidance on HIPAA and individual authorization of uses and disclosures of protected health information (PHI) for research. The guidance explains certain requirements for an authorization to use or disclose PHI for future research and clarifies aspects of the individual's right to revoke an authorization for research uses and disclosures of PH

Measuring compliance program effectiveness is recommended by several authorities, including the United States Sentencing Commission (see, Chapter 8 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines). The Compliance Department is not permitted to perform these audits. Audits must be performed independently, to avoid self-policing. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Compliance-and-Audits/Part-C-and-Part-D-Compliance-and-Audits/Downloads/Element-VI-Focused-Training-Power-Point-.pdf. However, it has been reported that only 25 percent of surveyed organizations reported using outside experts to evaluate their program, and nearly 66 percent of organizations claimed that they rely upon self-assessment tools and checklists to evidence their compliance program effectiveness.

On February 9, 2018, Congress enacted a permanent solution to the hard cap on outpatient therapy services under Medicare Part B, ending a cycle of short-term fixes that have been necessary since its introduction in 1997 as part of the Balanced Budget Act.

The legislation that has been enacted provides a fix for the therapy cap by permanently extending the current exceptions process. Among the provisions included in the new policy: