As industry stakeholders know, cyberattacks and breaches have been on the rise in the health care industry. IBM Security’s 2023 annual report notes that the average health care data breach has reached $10.93M and that health...more
On August 15, 2023, the Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert entitled “Preserving patient safety after a cyberattack,” which provides “tips on what organizations can do to prepare to deliver safe patient care in the...more
Effective January 1, 2023, The Joint Commission (TJC) eliminated 168 (or 14%) of its accreditation standards across all of its accreditation programs and revised 14 other standards. To further streamline its standards, TJC is...more
In November 2022, when The Joint Commission (“TJC”) announced its decision to update its accreditation standards to permit practitioner recredentialing every three years instead of two, many California hospitals and their...more
Starting July 1, 2023, The Joint Commission (TJC) will set health equity as a National Patient Safety Goal for certain TJC-accredited organizations and roll out a new Health Care Equity certification program to recognize and...more
The Joint Commission, one of the leading accrediting organizations of health care entities, recently announced significant updates to require that health care organizations invest in their health equity promotion...more
On Wednesday, December 21, 2022, The Joint Commission announced that, effective January 1, 2023, it is eliminating 168 (or 14%) of its accreditation standards across its accreditation programs, and revising 14 more. The Joint...more
Compliance Today - December 2022 - We are at a critical moment of change when it comes to truly addressing health inequities in this country. With the intersection of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting and...more
New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) adopted its first comprehensive lobbying regulations in 2018. However, the legal effect of these regulations had been unclear following a litigation settlement between...more
New York’s recently passed budget bill is set to replace the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) with a new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, effective July 8....more
The Joint Commission recently announced it has changed its accreditation rules to enable more hospitals and telemedicine companies to use the streamlined “credentialing by proxy” process. Under the change, the distant site...more
Accredited organizations should begin to prepare for the resumption of survey activity in a modified form. Organizations that are experiencing a COVID-19 surge or have other challenges may want to reach out to the accrediting...more
The Joint Commission (JC) announced Wednesday that it will resume its regular surveying and reviews beginning in June. The JC will identify and prioritize low-risk organizations, and organizations due for a survey can expect...more
Earlier this month, France, Germany and the UK triggered the dispute process under the Iran nuclear deal, saying they had been "left with no choice" after Iran decided to further reduce compliance with the agreement. The...more
New York State’s first-ever Comprehensive Lobbying Regulations were approved by the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) and will take full effect on January 1, 2019. The new regulations incorporate and...more
In an effort to curb workplace violence against healthcare workers, The Joint Commission, a national healthcare accreditation body, recently issued seven actions healthcare organizations are encouraged to implement. The...more
The Joint Commission announced that it will eliminate a requirement of deemed home health organizations to provide the personalized written plan of care to patients....more
At the April 24, 2018 meeting of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (“JCOPE”) -- the regulator of state and local lobbying activities in the State of New York -- the agency unanimously adopted the state’s first-ever...more
Hospital-based telemedicine services continue to rapidly expand across the country, allowing providers to deliver care to rural areas and better allocate the staffing and availability of specialist physicians such as...more
Effective January 3, 2018, The Joint Commission (TJC) has revised its standards to no longer require TJC-accredited hospitals, critical access hospitals, and ambulatory care organizations to credential and privilege...more
A physician organization has failed to sufficiently plead that a physician certification group caused an unreasonable restraint of trade through its actions to promulgate its certification program. Last week, a district court...more
In order to understand the context in which the current tax reform bill, H.R. 1, is being considered, it is important to know the meaning of two bits of Washington jargon: “budget reconciliation” and the “Byrd rule.” Though...more
The Joint Commission has proposed changes to its accreditation standards to account for direct-to-patient telehealth services. The new standards will apply to Joint Commission-accredited hospitals and ambulatory health care...more
The Joint Commission (TJC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) took a firm stance against physicians texting patient orders in a recent joint statement, clarifying that it is not acceptable for physicians...more
The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals and other health care organizations, recently announced it will not permit hospitals and other health care organizations to use secure text messaging platforms to transmit...more