May 2017 Blog Posts (40)

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regards the Business Associate as a major player. HIPAA defines the Business Associate (BA) as either an organization or a person who works with or provides service to a Covered Entity, who in turn is defined as one who handles or discloses Protected Health Information (PHI).

So, a Business Associate is any person or entity that is involved in creating, receiving, maintaining or transmitting PHI to a Covered Entity for…

The Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) is a program used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for calculating the rate or extent of improper payments of Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS). The method used by the CMS under CERT is to pick up a stratified random sample of some 40,000 claims that are statistically valid and calculate and audit it to determine if the payments were made in accordance with the rules relevant to items such as coding, Medicare coverage, and…

In many years that it has been in existence, one of the noticeable changes that HIPAA has undergone is in its attitude. The earlier phase of advice and counseling has now given way to hardboiled and unforgiving enforcement. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) no longer uses the cajoling and persuasive method. It wants to impose super harsh penalties on healthcare organizations which violate its rules.

For starters, healthcare organizations have to reckon with new, ominously higher fines,…

Technology transfer is a process that has gained widespread acceptance and prominence in many areas of knowledge all over the world today. Technology transfer can be broadly defined as the way in which technology is transferred from the source of its origin of creation to sources from where it can be developed and/or distributed to a wider area.

Technology transfer is carried out in a number of…

A perfect hire is a boon to any organization. At the other extreme, a bad hire can bring the inverse result to the organization: It can not only impede productivity; it can even result in drawing the organization into legal issues associated with wrong hiring. Problem employees create employee problems, which is why HR professionals need to be aware of what steps to take and what scenarios to avoid if…

Professionals in the field of statistical analysis need a clear and perceptive insight into how to understand and interpret statistical concepts used to investigate quantitative ICH Guidelines such as analytical methods validation, procedures and acceptance criteria in calibration limits. Along with these, process and quality controls, as well as ICH Q8 and Q9 also need to be properly and thoroughly understood.

The ICH tripartite-harmonized ICH…

A n internal audit program of an organization’s Quality Management Systems is a core requirement from both the ISO and the FDA. At its barest, an internal audit system can be understood to be an assessment or inspection of an organization’s Quality System. Audits are a very beneficial and positive tool for continually ensuring that an organization’s internal management…

The phrase “data integrity” seems to be everywhere. It is used in a number of places and situations, and the FDA has its own definition of the term. At its plainest, data integrity is defined as the assurance that data is complete, consistent and accurate. FDA requires this data to be…