10095 Brick Church Road • Cambridge, Ohio 43725 • 740-439-8191

"Providing Health Care for the Prevention of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses"

Providing Health Care for the Prevention of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses

February 2003

What is HIPAA?

HIPPA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The original purpose of HIPAA was to improve and standardize healthcare billing, share medical information among providers and simplify administration of insurance. Congress later added privacy and confidentiality rules to protect the health information of the public. Until now, this promise was simply part of the health care’s code of ethics. But under HIPPA, it will be illegal to violate this code. The new law will go into effect on April 14, 2003.

All information about patients is considered private or “confidential”, whether written on paper, saved on a computer, or spoken aloud. This includes their name, address, age, Social Security number, and any other personal information. If you reveal any of this information to someone who does not need to know it, you have violated a patient’s confidentially, and you have broken the law! The penalty for a single offense of one regulation is up to a $100 fine per person, per violation, per year; the maximum yearly penalty for a single offense is $25,000. In other words, this could be thousands, if not millions of dollars.

With HIPAA, patients are going to know more about their rights, which means that they have the right to control who will see their protected, identifiable health information. This means that communications with or about patients involving protected health information will be private and limited to those who need the information in order to provide treatment, payment, and healthcare options.

Authorization Forms. . . .

Company representatives who are scheduling services such as drug testing, physicals, audiograms, breath alcohol screenings, etc. MUST COMPLETE AN AUTHORIZATION FORM. This authorization form is to be completed by the Designated Employee Representative (DER) who is authorized to order testing. By completing this form, the DER gives the medical personnel permission to perform the required screenings. If you require post accident or reasonable suspicion testing, it is IMPERATIVE to send the authorization form with your employee or injured worker to Southeastern Med if testing is needed when WorkPro is closed. The authorization form may be faxed to WorkPro (740-439-8538) or sent with the employee the day of testing. You may duplicate our form as many times as needed. Please feel free to contact Michele at (740) 439-8773, if you have any questions or concerns regarding the authorization form or with scheduling services.

New Building Update. . . .

The construction of the new facility on Route 660 is in progress. Estimated completion date for the building will be July 2003. The Project will enable Southeastern Med to serve the community with state of the art, convenient outpatient services. In addition to offering traditional physical and occupational therapy, the new building has been designed to ensure the delivery of integrated industrial and sport rehabilitation under on roof. The facility will house the offices of WorkPro and Dr. Schram-Wayne, our Industrial Medicine Physician. In addition, the Medical Director of Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Services, Dr. Dennis Davis, will relocate his practice to the 660 Project. New services will include Functional Capacity Evaluations and Work Simulation for injured workers as well as the only warm water therapy pool in the area.

Lunch on us. . . .

If the next issue of the WorkPro Newsletter lists your office, YOU WIN! What? Lunch for your office from us. We will coordinate the day to best fit everyone’s schedule and then bring you lunch. We’ll pick an office per issue from our mailing list. If your office isn’t on the list, call us at (740) 439-8191 and we’ll add you. The Winner this Quarter is Schick’s Wrecker Service.

Welcome. . . .

Lisa Lemmon has joined the staff at WorkPro as the Industrial Billing Specialist. Lisa will be handling all the billing for services provided at WorkPro. If you have any questions regarding billing, please call Lisa at (740) 439-8695.

OSHA Update. . . .

OSHA Delays Recordkeeping Requirements

OSHA announced its long-awaited decision on the proposed delay of recordkeeping requirements for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and hearing loss. Most recently scheduled for January 1, 2003, the agency is delaying the implementation of these provisions until January 1, 2004. In addition, the effective date of the related MSD definition in Section 1904.12 will be delayed in light of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao’s difficulty defining MSDs in the context of her comprehensive ergonomics plan. To learn more, visit www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/clarifactions-recordkeeping.html.

And the Wellness winner is. . . .

This year’s winner was Terry Ivey from LDM Technologies. WorkPro sponsors wellness days at area companies to promote optimum employee health and all participants are signed up for a grand prize. This year’s door prize was a DVD player.

Wellness Days are tailored to your own specific company needs. Health Screening performed on industrial employees include blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, cancer screenings and body fat analysis. For more information or to schedule call (740) 439-8191

Congratulations! ! !

The Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) is pleased to announce that Michele Johnson, Christina Thorngate and Kim Clary has successfully completed a CAOHC approved course to become an Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC). Industry depends on its certified technicians who conduct audiometric as part of the hearing conservation team, to prevent hearing loss among occupational workers.