First Healthcare Compliance CONNECT February 2020

® 

CONNECT 

An Exclusive Monthly Publication for Clients 

February 2020 

A Look Back at Our 2019 

Healthcare Compliance 

Educational Webinars 

Distinguished Speaker to 

Discuss the Intersection 

of Privacy and Security 

Laws and Biometrics at 

the 3rd Annual Healthcare 

Compliance Symposium 

on April 23rd, 2020 

Q&A: Building a 

Consistent Company 

Culture 

1st Talk Compliance: 

Maximizing Medicare 

Reimbursements by 

Optimizing your MIPS Score 

New Training Modules 

Client FAQ Corner

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In This Issue: 

Client FAQ Corner 

A Look Back at Our 2019 Healthcare Compliance Educational Webinars 

Distinguished Speaker to Discuss the Intersection of Privacy and Security Laws and 

Biometrics at the 3rd Annual Healthcare Compliance Symposium on April 23rd, 2020 

2 

First Healthcare Compliance, LLC © 2020

Compliance Super Ninja 

Jean Bassford, Human Resources Generalist 

Maine Nephrology Associates, PA 

How would you describe your experience with First Healthcare Compliance? 

I have had very positive experiences. The system has been easy to use, and whenever I have a 

question or challenge, Desiree is always quick to respond. 

What do you enjoy most about working with Maine Nephrology Associates, PA? 

I love working for a medical practice with such caring staff, both clinical and non-clinical. We all 

work hard to make things run as smoothly as possible, so that our providers can give the best 

possible care to our patients. 

Would you rather be able to talk with animals or speak all foreign languages, and 

why? 

Animals any time! They are pure of heart, and usually hilarious! 

Q&A: Building a Consistent Company Culture 

1st Talk Compliance: Maximizing Medicare 

Reimbursements by Optimizing your MIPS Score 

Training Modules 

Contact Toll Free: 888-54-FIRST 3


Symposium 2020 

Early Bird 

Tickets 

Available 

Now 

April 23, 2020 

4 


Client FAQ Corner 

Are There Any Changes to Individuals’ Right of Access Under HIPAA? 

The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a notice explaining changes to 

individuals’ right of access to health records due to a recent court case, Ciox Health, LLC v. Azar, et al, that challenged 

portions of the 2013 Omnibus Rule and certain OIG guidance. The federal court’s decision made two important changes 

that healthcare providers need to be aware of: 

• The HITECH Act permits individuals to obtain PHI maintained in an electronic health record (EHR) and direct a covered 

entity to transmit PHI from an EHR to a designated third party. The 2013 Omnibus Rule unlawfully expanded this to 

include PHI contained in any electronic format, which was vacated by the federal court. 

• The fee limitation set forth at 45 C.F.R. § 164.524(c)(4) only applies to an individual’s (or the individual’s personal 

representative) request for access to their own records. It does not apply to an individual’s request to transmit records 

to a third party. As a result, the 2016 OIG Guidance that required reasonable, cost-based fee or a $6.50 flat fee does 

not extend to third parties, such as law firms and insurers. 

For further details, visit: 

OCR notice: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/court-order-right-of-access/index.html 

OCR 2016 Guidance: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/access/index.html#maximumflatfee 

Ciox Health Court Order: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv0040-51 

Explore the FAQs tab in your compliance solution to 

find answers to your compliance questions! 

Navigating Workplace Violence 

Prevention Under OSHA 

Workplace violence is a serious issue, especially in healthcare facilities. In 2013 

alone, over 25,000 occupational assault injuries occurred, most of which were 

in the health care and social services industries. The Occupational Safety and 

Health Administration (OSHA) responded in 2015 by updating and publishing 

their guidelines on how to best prevent workplace violence. The OSHA workplace 

violence prevention guidelines help employees and employers alike by providing 

the necessary steps to maintain a safe work environment. 

DOWNLOAD NOW 


Distinguished Speaker to Discuss the Intersection of Privacy 

and Security Laws and Biometrics at the 3rd Annual Healthcare 

Compliance Symposium on April 23rd, 2020 

By Catherine Short 

Rachel V. Rose, JD, MBA, a principal 

with Rachel V. Rose Attorney at Law, 

P.L.L.C. in Houston, Texas will serve 

as the Distinguished Speaker at the 

3rd Annual Healthcare Compliance 

Symposium co-hosted by Delaware Law 

School and First Healthcare Compliance. 

WILMINGTON, DEL. (PRWEB) JANUARY 28, 2020 

Ms. Rose has a unique background, having worked in many 

different facets of healthcare, securities and international 

law and business throughout her career. Her practice 

focuses on a variety of cybersecurity, health care, and 

securities law issues related to industry compliance and 

transactional work, as well as representing plaintiffs in 

Dodd-Frank/False Claims Act whistleblower claims, which 

remain under seal. 

Ms. Rose holds an MBA with minors in healthcare and 

entrepreneurship from Vanderbilt University, and a law 

degree from Stetson University College of Law, where 

she graduated with various honors, including the National 

Scribes Award and The William F. Blews Pro Bono Service 

Award. Ms. Rose is licensed in Texas and is an Affiliated 

Member with the Baylor College of Medicine’s Center 

for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, where she teaches 

bioethics. 

Currently, she is on the Executive Committee of the Federal 

Bar Association’s Qui Tam Section and the Chair of the 

Government Relations Committee, the co-editor of the 

American Health Lawyers Association’s Enterprise Risk 

Management Handbook for Healthcare Entities (2nd Edition), 

as well as a co-author of the book The ABCs of ACOs and 

What Are International HIPAA Considerations? She has 

been named consecutively to the Texas Bar College, the 

National Women Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 25, the 

National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and Houstonia Magazine’s 

Top Lawyers for healthcare. In 2019, Ms. Rose was 

selected as First Healthcare Compliance Presenter of the 

Year for the popular webinar HIPAA and Health Apps. 

Biometrics, whether in relation to healthcare or 

employment law, are becoming more of an issue. The 

intersection between laws such as HIPAA and BIPA and 

biometrics cannot be ignored because the risk of noncompliance 

can be costly. This presentation explores the 

potential legal exposure that companies have and ways to 

mitigate risk through compliance. 

The Healthcare Compliance Symposium is a joint effort of 

Delaware Law School and First Healthcare Compliance to 

provide resources for professionals serving in the growing 

field of healthcare compliance. The full-day event will be 

held on April 23rd, 2020 at Widener University Delaware 

Law School- Ruby R. Vale Moot Courtroom and will include 

continental breakfast, lunch, and multiple opportunities 

for continuing education credits and CLE. Educational 

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sessions will focus on various topics including ethics and patient advocacy, whistleblowers, avoiding fraud, telemedicine, 

background checks and more. Registration is available to the public with discounted pricing available until March 23, 2020. 

About Delaware Law School: Widener University is a metropolitan university 

that connects curricula to social issues through civic engagement. Dynamic 

teaching, active scholarship, personal attention, applied leadership, and 

experiential learning are key components of the Widener experience. Delaware 

Law School is the First State’s only law school, providing a Juris doctor, legal 

graduate and paralegal degree programs with an emphasis on developing 

legal professionals who reflect the Delaware Way and its traditions of civility, 

integrity and mutual respect. The school offers signature programs in 

corporate and business law, environmental law, family health law and policy, 

trial advocacy, and dignity rights. 

The most comprehensive 

healthcare compliance course 

The Fundamentals is a user-friendly, four-module online course 

designed to help healthcare professionals understand the essential 

principles and practices of compliance. 

Written by our “dream team” of healthcare providers and attorneys, 

The Fundamentals course is packed with useful, easy-to-understand 

information that covers HIPAA, OSHA, employment law and enforcement 

of federal healthcare laws. 

The course takes less than four hours to complete, and the modules can 

be viewed in any order. A certificate of course completion is provided 

following successful completion of the online course and exam. 

The Compliance Certification Board (CCB)® has approved this event for up to 4.0 nonlive CCB CEUs. 

Continuing Education Units are awarded based on individual attendance records. Granting of prior approval 

in no way constitutes endorsement by CCB of this event content or of the event sponsor. 

Buy Course Today 


A Look Back at Our 2019 


Educational Webinars 


It was an excellent year for educational 

webinars at First Healthcare Compliance, 

presented by top subject matter experts in the 

healthcare field. We want to take a moment 

to highlight our top webinar of 2019 and look 

back on the webinars and presenters we hosted 

during 2019! 

Rachel V. Rose, Attorney at Law, PLLC of Houston, Texas 

presented the top webinar of 2019 titled HIPAA and Health 

Apps, receiving the highest number of registrants. Rachel 

represents clients on healthcare, cybersecurity, securities 

and qui tam matters. She also teaches bioethics at Baylor 

College of Medicine. She has been consecutively named by 

Houstonia Magazine as a Top Lawyer (Healthcare) and to the 

National Women Trial Lawyer’s Top 25. 

Be sure to view a recording of this webinar on YouTube. 

Rachel was featured on our radio show and podcast, 1st 

Talk Compliance with host Catherine Short, interviewed for 

the Q&A: HIPAA and Health Apps blog post, and presented 

at our 2019 HIPAA Privacy and Security Summit and will 

serve as Distinguished Speaker at our upcoming Healthcare 

Compliance Symposium 2020 with Widener University 

Delaware Law School on April 23, 2020. 

Andrew Wilson attorney and legislative specialist in Morris 

James LLP’s Health Care Industry and Government Relations 

Groups, presented an engaging webinar titled Telemedicine 

Compliance Primer – Using Delaware as a Model. 

Gavin Baker, President of Baker Labs, presented How to 

Handle Negative Patient Reviews, covering the importance 

of reviews to today’s modern doctor and patient, and how to 

handle negative reviews. 

Catherine Walters, Esq. led a timely webinar titled 

Navigating the Background Check and FCRA Compliance 

Minefield. Catherine is a partner at the law firm of Bybel 

Rutledge LLP, where she serves as Chair of the Employment/ 

Labor Law Group. 

Pam Joslin, MM, CMC, CMIS, CMOM, CMCO, CEMA, 

CMCA-E/M of Innovative Healthcare Consulting presented 

Compliance Program Effectiveness: Auditing and Monitoring 

discussing the relationship and responsibilities between 

auditing and monitoring and how to ensure that your 

organization is fully compliant. 

Stan Szpytek, President of Fire and Life Safety, Inc, offered 

a vital webinar on Fire & Life Safety Compliance in health 

care facilities with focus on NFPA 101, The Life Safety Code 

(2012) and NFPA 99, The Health Care Facilities code (2012) 

called Fire & Life Safety Compliance in Health Care Facilities. 

Gene M. Ransom III, CEO of The Maryland State Medical 

Society, presented Medical Cannabis: Legal and Practice 

Considerations, providing an overview of issues surrounding 

medical cannabis. 

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Shivhon Adkins, MPA, founder of Medical Receptionist 

Network and author of the Medical Receptionist Handbook 

to Success led the engaging webinar, Front Desk Success 

with Medical Receptionist Engagement. 

Jennifer Gimler Brady, Partner and General Counsel at 

Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP discussed the compliance 

function of boards of healthcare entities during the 

presentation, The Role of Boards in Healthcare Compliance. 

Steven S. Wilder, BA, CHSP, STS, Senior Consultant & 

COO of Sorensen, Wilder & Associates presented the timely 

webinar, Recognizing & Defusing Aggressive Behavior Before 

Violence Erupts. 

William McBorrough co-Founder and Chief Security 

Advisor at MCGlobalTech discussed security trends and 

cybersecurity threats in the healthcare industry in the 

webinar titled Best Practices for Implementing PHI Security. 

Patricia M. Clendening, President of HR Strategies, LLC 

presented the timely webinar, How to Navigate the Ever- 

Changing Anti-Harassment Regulations, covering training 

and reporting requirements, how to address offensive 

behaviors, conduct impartial investigations, and much more. 

Warren Cook, President and CEO of SymbianceHR led the 

webinar Got Diversity. Get Inclusion! and the Pending FLSA 

Changes, discussing how to build an inclusive workforce 

through application of strategies and out of the box thinking 

to create a competitive advantage. Warren also presented a 

webinar on Event Planning & Building an Engaging Culture. 

Lauren E.M. Russell, attorney for Young Conaway Stargatt 

& Taylor, LLP led Managing Drug Use in the Workplace, 

providing a summary of relevant considerations when 

managing employee drug use in the workplace, whether 

legal or illegal. 

Elizabeth Sullivan, Esq. and Emily A. Johnson, Esq. of 

McDonald Hopkins LLC covered an important piece of 

legislation impacting the healthcare industry, in the webinar 

titled Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA): 

Summary and Status. 

Reid Kiser, MS, founder and chief consultant of Kiser 

Healthcare Solutions, LLC, presented Understanding the 

Healthcare Quality Measurement Data Landscape: “Data is 

the New Oil”. 

Chad Larson, Executive Director of the Hospital 

Accreditation Program in the Division of Accreditation and 

Certification Operations at The Joint Commission presented 

an informative webinar titled The Joint Commission (JCAHO): 

Inspiring Healthcare Excellence. 

Courtney Tito, Esq., member of the Health Law group 

at McDonald Hopkins, LLC, presentation Payor Disputes 

and Audits: Observations & Strategies, a webinar to help 

participants better understand the payor audit process and 

prepare organizations to effectively respond to initial and 

subsequent rounds of review. 

Stephen Bittinger, attorney with Nexsen Pruet’s Health 

Care Practice Group, presented The New, Personal Audit 

Threat: Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) Audits. 

Robert Hopton, Chief Executive Officer, and Sarah Reiter, 

Vice President Strategic Partnerships, both of Health eFilings, 

presented about the MIPS program, what it means, and 

what you can do to maximize Medicare reimbursements 

in the webinar How to Manage the Challenges of MIPS 

Reporting. 

Philadelphia healthcare attorney and founder of the Law 

Offices of George W. Bodenger, LLC presented Telemedicine 

– Key Legal and Business Issues. The presentation highlights 

key legal and business issues in telemedicine. 

Cristin Gardner, Director of Consumer Products & Markets, 

at Life Image, Inc., and David Schoolcraft, Partner and 

Chair of Digital Health Law Group, at Ogden Murphy Wallace 

led the presentation Upholding HIPAA Compliance and 

Streamlining Patient Access to Medical Data in Today’s 

Digital, Consumer-Driven Environment. 

First Healthcare Compliance educational webinars are 

complimentary and typically offered twice a month. Over 

10,000 complimentary continuing education units (CEUs) 

were attained courtesy of PAHCOM and PMI during 2019. 

First Healthcare Compliance clients have the benefit of 

access to CEUs from 16 separate respected industry 

organizations on several dozen topics from within our 

training zone. 

If you have a topic to share with our loyal and large number of 

attendees, we are currently seeking webinar proposals. Please contact 

our webinar host and host of our nationally syndicated radio show, 1st 

Talk Compliance, Catherine Short, Partnership Marketing Manager at: 

catherineshort@1sthcc.com. 


Q&A: Building a Consistent Company Culture 


Warren Cook BS, MBA, MS, SHRMcertified 

of SymbianceHR, recently 

presented the webinar Event Planning 

and Building an Engaging Culture. 

Warren returned to answer many 

commonly asked questions on our blog 

in relation to company culture. 

Every organization has a business or corporate 

culture. However, it often appears like the culture 

is inconsistent or challenging to maintain the way 

leadership desires. Why is that? 

Many business leaders continue to ask me this question 

as they seek to overcome this workplace challenge. The 

primary cause for the inconsistency and the challenge 

is the ever-changing workforce as people come and go 

into the company. The secondary reason is the lack of 

demonstrated actions and behaviors of the leadership 

blended with the absence of accountability that erodes the 

desired culture and produces a new one. 

That’s very interesting, perhaps not so obvious 

though for the leadership of a company. Explain the 

inconsistency challenge further and what leads to 

this problem. 

The primary reason is the easier one to explain. Turnover or 

growth of an organization results in new employees with 

different perspectives, beliefs and workplace behaviors. 

Regardless of the work history of the employee, meaning 

first job or tenth job, the individual has learned how to be 

effective in how they perform tasks, communicate with 

others, solve problems, ask questions, etc. Infusing new 

people into an established group creates both a challenge 

and opportunity to educate and train on expectations and 

desired behaviors. However, many organizations have 

not established the necessary systems and practices to 

transfer the appropriate knowledge to new employees for 

a successful transition into the organization. This results in 

the inconsistent actions and behaviors disrupting or eroding 

the desired company culture. 

That problem doesn’t sound like an easy one to 

fix. What do you recommend organizations do to 

overcome this challenge? 

Of the two reasons I shared with you I have found it 

to be the easier problem to fix because it requires the 

establishment of effective human resource management 

practices during the talent acquisition process through 

orientation, onboarding and on the job training. Often 

neglected because the activities do not generate revenue, 

building a strong human resources infrastructure directly 

impacts the ability for a leadership team to establish, 

implement and sustain the culture they desire in the 

workplace. Development of robust recruiting and interview 

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practices that then flow into orientation and onboarding that is executed consistently by trained professionals will ensure 

communication of the culture and will demonstrate the necessary behaviors for a new employee to adopt the culture 

effectively. Basically, you design an engaging program that models your expectations and encourages compliance to 

achieve success. 

This sounds extremely comprehensive. You did mention a second reason, what can business leaders do to 

improve their organization’s culture? 

The more difficult challenge to culture requires the members of the leadership team to be self-accountable in how they 

execute their duties for the company. 

That appears to be a simple solution, why do you claim this is more challenging? 

Because it requires leaders to look in the mirror and realize that often they are the problem and the actual cause of 

the failure in the culture.; their inability to demonstrate and model the necessary actions and behavioral norms for the 

workforce, to observe and follow results, in lack of trust and confidence in doing what is expected. Taking this further, 

leaders who fail to stay engaged with their staff and hold them accountable for demonstrating expected behaviors become 

part of the problem and not the solution. I often ask a CEO what their company culture is, then I ask the receptionist or 

a staff member the same question and almost 100% of the time the answers are drastically different. What the leader 

thinks the culture is versus the reality of what the workforce experiences is the challenge because it requires the leader 

to own the problem and be part of the solution. You cannot simply tell your management and workforce what the culture 

is, you need to model it, demonstrate it, and basically live it every day so others trust and believe in it and follow it. Easier 

said than done, however. If you want a consistent productive company culture that is sustainable the leadership must 

implement the necessary systems, programs and practices we discussed here today. 

Warren is the president and co-founder of SymbianceHR and provides strategic 

oversight for service delivery, business operations, and technical guidance on consulting 

engagements. He is a human resources subject matter expert with over 20 years of 

experience as a strategic business partner, project manager, and people leader across 

private and public sectors organizations. 

Be sure to look up the recording of Warren’s recently aired webinar and check out our 

other HR resources, such as our online compliance training courses in the Basics of 

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Preventing and Addressing Workplace Harassment 

and Bullying. Be on the lookout for our upcoming radio show with Warren. And check out 

Warren’s other blog, Demonstrating the ROI of HR for your Business and webinar, Risk 

Management of Employment Practices, now on YouTube. 


hosted by Catherine Short 

Catherine Short speaks with Sarah Reiter, Vice President Strategic Partnerships, Health eFilings, about the 

topic of “Maximizing Medicare Reimbursements by Optimizing your MIPS Score.” The MIPS compliance 

landscape is very challenging and confusing. Understanding the requirements to earn points will 

significantly impact your Medicare reimbursements. We will learn how best to approach MIPS compliance, 

discuss how MACRA is driving the transformation in healthcare, why compliance is critical, how the 

financial implications of MIPS are significant, why MIPS is complicated, discuss Health eFilings Advantages 

versus a Registry and versus EHR. 

Listen weekdays at 

7:30am, 3:30pm, 11:30pm ET 

Check out our Show Page! 

Looking for the latest compliance insights? 

Subscribe to our feed and don’t miss a thing! 

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WORD SEARCH 

R I Z U G A Q D C N S Z E X R S F U N O 

E M E J Y H P W Y E A J O I D K M A X M 

G J I P L P N F B T P E X H L K S C I A 

U E R B W J K E E W R B N N J R L N I V 

L A C Q E Z G B R O G V E I A L C A T E 

A K A E E M I P S R D S N N W P E I A K 

T O A R B E E I E K T V I U F Q J L B W 

I W P A M E D B C F Y B C V X B U P Z H 

O T I C A N S E U Q E W I Y N C M M B B 

N Y H I X I S O R W V W D I K L W O Z M 

S M M D I C L U I S Q S E J L A Q C C V 

B F G E M I Z H T P I T M S P T K W A H 

W S R M I D B B Y V T J E X M I W F G D 

D Z S X Z E Y A A P G R L E Y P D W Q L 

L U R E I M B U R S E M E N T S T X E D 

A F K O N N A K C Y Y Y T J W O Z A J C 

E L W A G C I G I T H E A L T H C A R E 

X K W X Z S U K V R X P C C J L I O B Z 

S Q G F P A R T N E R S H I P S U J G V 

M W L P V J N T C L Z F Z N U X J K T L 

MEDICARE MIPS PARTNERSHIPS 

MAXIMIZING REIMBURSEMENTS HEALTHCARE 

COMPLIANCE WEBINARS CYBERSECURITY 

TELEMEDICINE NETWORK REGULATIONS 

HOSPITAL HIPAA MEDICINE 


New Training Modules Now Available! 

Training 

I Fought The Law: What To Do When Facing A 

Potential/Actual Lawsuit 

Making Your Referral Sources Legal 

Surviving an OCR Audit 

Avoiding HR Issues at Company Events & 

Building an Engaging Culture 

Upholding HIPAA Compliance and Streamlining 

Patient Access to Medical Data in Today’s 

Digital, Consumer-Driven Environment 

Join us on Social Media! 

Contact our Client Services Team with your questions! 

888.54.FIRST or clientservices@1sthcc.com 

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First Healthcare Compliance CONNECT February 2020

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