You are working as an independent contractor doing medical transcription

DQ 1.You are working as an independent contractor doing medical transcription. As an outsourcing company providing transcription services, you are not considered a “covered entity”. Therefore, are you exempt from the HIPAA privacy rule? Why or why not? Engage in discussion with two other posts of interest.

Visit this website for information on HIPAA and the medical transcriptionist.
www.mtworld.com/tools_resources/understanding_hipaa.html

DQ 2.Discussion 3: HIPAA – Business Associate

You are a MT for a physician’s office (covered entity) , therefore, you are considered a business associate. Answer the following questions:

DQ 3. As a MT are you required to save digitally recorded voice files or analog tapes or is it okay to delete the files or erase the tapes?
2. Is the covered entity required to monitor the actions of the business associate?
3. Is the covered entity liable for the actions of the business associate?
4. If the covered entity finds out about a HIPAA violation by the business associate what action must be taken?

Visit the following websites for information on HIPAA and the Business Associate
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/faq/right_to_access_medical_records/369.html
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/faq/business_associates/236.html

DQ 4. : HIPAA – Medical Transcription Errors

Medical transcription is a very important process when it comes to the business of saving lives. Those are the seemingly indecipherable notes on your patient sheet that your doctor will look over to help decide which medicines and treatments you will need to become a functioning human being again. Unfortunately, a lot of these notes are written in haste and words can be misspelled, forgotten, or switched around.

You might be shocked to hear that doctors goof up on those notes, especially when receiving wrong doses or entirely wrong medicines can do much more harm than good. While medical transcription errors are best avoided, not all of them spell doom for a patient. Visit the website below for some transcription errors and answer the following questions and respond to two other posts of interest.

Do you think these types of errors, critical, major or minor? Why? Give examples.
2. How do you think these errors could have been avoided?
3. Do you think these errors could have been attributed to the use of text expanders or macros?
4. Do you think it is the responsibility of the transcriptionist, quality assurance or the physician to catch these types of errors?

http://www.medical-transcription1.com/NewsArticleDetail16.htm

DQ 5 . You are a medical transcriptionist for a psychiatric office. You have just enrolled your 2-year-old child in an at-home daycare. You are filing transcribed reports when you run across the name of your new child caregiver. You are immediately concerned that you have left your child with a person who may have a serious mental illness. You think it is okay to look at the file for your own information, as long as you do not disclose the information to anybody else, as you do have access to all of the charts. Is this correct? Why or why not?

DQ 6 Millions of people work with computers every day. There is no single “correct” posture or arrangement of components that will fit everyone. However, there are basic design goals. Go to the following website.At work while your doctor is dictating a patient’s chart note he includes insulting information about a nurse of his (someone you know, of course). He tells about her inappropriate care of his patient and the disciplinary actions to be taken. What to do? Transcribe as dictated in the patient’s chart note? Not transcribe it? Transcribe it in a separate document? Take the information to your supervisor?

DQ 7 At work while your doctor is dictating a patient’s chart note he includes insulting information about a nurse of his (someone you know, of course). He tells about her inappropriate care of his patient and the disciplinary actions to be taken. What to do? Transcribe as dictated in the patient’s chart note? Not transcribe it? Transcribe it in a separate document? Take the information to your supervisor? Give a brief paragraph of what you would do in this situation and why.

DQ 8. You had an appointment with your family physician. This physician just happens to dictate reports to the medical transcription company you work for, and you are one of the MTs who work on that site. You go into the system at work and open up the report to see who transcribed your report and to read the report. You know that, as a patient, you have the right to have access to your medical records. Is this a violation of HIPAA? Why or why not.

DQ 9 As a “seasoned” transcriptionist, I too, have had instances where I was unable to understand the physician or to successfully research a term the physician was using. During my years of transcription I have often heard the quote: “When in doubt, leave it out.”

This quote obviously is not referring to leaving a blank and flagging the document to be viewed by quality assurance or the physician him/herself, but rather to make the sentence complete by disregarding the information that could not be obtained as long as the information is not critical to the care of the patient. What are your thoughts regarding this quote

………………………….Answer preview…………………………..

As an independent contractor, I will not be covered in HIPAA privacy rule. This is because as a private medical contractor, HIPAA rules will consider my medical activities as business associates. Being a medical practitioner, I will only be carrying out my activities on behalf of my outsourcing company………………………..

APA

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