The Family Rights and Responsibilities Act took effect July 1, 2024 in Tennessee.  Of key interest to healthcare professionals is that the parental rights are exclusively reserved to a parent of a child without obstruction of a government entity including the rights to make all physical and mental healthcare decisions for the child and consent to all physical and mental health care on the child’s behalf.

OSHA updated the criteria for several health and physical hazard classes to provide better information to employees.  A major change involves health hazards with updated skin corrosion/irritation and serious eye damage/eye irritation chapters. 

CAUTION!!! One of our dentists reported that they received a phone call claiming to be from the Tennessee Board of Dentistry. The caller said there was a drug incident being reflected on the dentist's dental license and that the license would be suspended. The fraudulent caller had the dentist's license information, but only information that is available to the public.

As you are aware, Change Healthcare experienced a cyberattack in early 2024.  Change Healthcare is owned by UnitedHealth Group.  Change Healthcare manages health care technology connected to processing insurance claims and billing. This includes Practice Works, SoftDent, Dentrix, EagleSoft, Open Dental and many more companies.  They serve basically as the business associate to the covered entity.  Please review your Business Associate Agreements in place with these companies

Recently I co-presented a course on how to do risk assessments for the Association of Dental Safety (formerly OSAP).  A top down strategy to assess risk is to evaluate the areas of strategic, technology, financial, operations, legal/regulatory and human capital.

We’ve addressed this support question regularly over the years when dental offices inquire whether their surveillance system violates HIPAA compliance and patient privacy.

As many of you are aware, the Federal Trade Commission issued its final rule on April 23, 2024 banning the use of non-compete agreements.  Dentists fear that the provisions of their employment agreements with associate dentists will not be upheld. This means that potentially an associate could easily set up their own practice within minutes of where they associated and pull patients away from the practice where they were employed. How should we react to this ban on non-compete agreements? 

Gel nails and acrylic nails continue to be popular in today’s world. This article explores the safety of gel and acrylic nails and whether these trends are appropriate for clinical dental team members.

Recently Walgreens was ordered to pay $205,000 in EEOC pregnancy and disability discrimination lawsuit. Evidently a Walgreens store located in Alexandria, Louisiana refused to let an employee take emergency leave to seek medical attention. The pregnant employee...

The ADA updated their recommendations for radiography safety in dentistry on February 1, 2024.  The use of lead abdominal aprons or thyroid collars on patients when taking x-rays is no longer recommended.  This decision was based on the ADA’s expert panel after reviewing published studies on radiography for dental patients.  This applies to all dental patients, including, quite surprisingly, pregnant patients.  According to them, the lead aprons and thyroid collars can block the primary x-ray beam diminishing the quality of the radiograph resulting in more exposures.

We all work from day to day without thinking of the possibilities of a dire emergency happening. But in the offhand chance that someone needs to be revived, is your AED ready?

Imagine this scenario: a patient suddenly needs a defibrillator. The team gets it and brings it to the patient, and it’s covered in a thin layer of dust. The team tries to use it. It is not in working order, and the patient is lost.

Are you a LLC, a PLLC or corporate entity?  Be aware that Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act in 2021. The new federal reporting requirement for beneficial ownership information goes into effect beginning January 1, 2024. The goal of this new law is to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes, including terrorist financing.

The OCR settled with a medical group in Louisiana for a phishing attack that affected 35,000 patients for $480,000.

Phishing attacks can result in identity theft, financial loss, discrimination, stigma, mental anguish, negative consequences to reputation, health, or physical safety of the individuals, or to others identified in the individual’s protected health information, according to the Office of Civil Rights. 

Are you counting down the days until Christmas? With the holiday season fast approaching, questions arise for employers and their teams. Let’s talk about the ABC’s of Christmas in the workplace.

There has been some buzz in the dental field about laws changing that concern x-ray and radiation protection for patients. We’ve recently received questions and comments from clients saying that they’ve heard that lead aprons are soon going to be obsolete, and they are wondering if this is or isn’t true.

The Office of Civil Rights indicates that sanction policies can support HIPAA compliance. Your sanction policies can be an important tool for supporting accountability and improving cybersecurity and data protection. Employees are required to comply with written policies and procedures. If they violate these policies and procedures, sanctions are specifically required by HIPAA’s Privacy Rule and Security Rule. 

As we enter the last quarter of the year, there are important considerations to make in reviewing your regulatory compliance program. Let's look at HIPAA...

As we enter the last quarter of the year, there are important considerations to make in reviewing your regulatory compliance program.  Let’s start with OSHA.  Next issue we’ll address HIPAA.

As many of you are aware, I started working in a dental office when I was 17 years old. I worked part time as a janitor for a cleaning company. 

I cleaned Dr. Artie Peacher's office in Dover, a small rural town in Tennessee where I live. I also worked part-time as the deputy clerk and master in the Chancery Court. Back then, I had no idea how the dental field and the legal profession would collide into my career!

Acadia Health doing business as Just Kids Dental filed a notice of a data breach with the Attorney General of Maine on September 1, 2023. Evidently an unauthorized party accessed patient information including: