Compliance

There are three types of standards created by HIPAA: privacy, security and administrative simplification (e.g., transaction standards). Taken together, these regulations have a major impact on the day-to-day functioning of the nation's hospitals and affect virtually every department of every entity that provides or pays for health care. This web page provides resources for hospitals and health systems on HIPAA compliance, security and privacy standards, transaction standards and administrative simplification.

This page contains materials related to AHA’s current and active policy-related litigation.

Clinical integration is needed to facilitate the coordination of patient care across conditions, providers, settings, and time in order to achieve care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-focused.

Not-for-profit community hospitals do more than care for the injured and infirm; they promote and protect the health and well-being of their communities. Not-for-profit hospitals are distinguished by certain charitable obligations that have evolved over time as they work to meet the changing health needs of their communities.

The increased costs that result from the current flawed medical liability system not only hinder access to affordable health care, they also threaten the stability of the health care field, which employed 5.7 million people in 2015, and continues to be one of the largest sources of private-sector jobs.

Every day, hospitals, health systems and post-acute care providers confront the daunting task of complying with a growing number of federal regulations. They are constantly challenged to understand and implement new or revised regulations, while maintaining their core mission of providing high-quality patient care. Providers appreciate that federal regulation is intended to ensure that health care patients receive safe, high-quality care, and prioritize it as a critical part of their day-to-day work.

For decades, the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act ("Stark Law") has protected the Medicare program from the inherent conflict of interest created when physicians self-referral their patients to facilities and services in which they have a financial stake. But the Stark Law’s "whole hospital" exception permitted physicians to refer patients to those hospitals where they had an ownership interest in the entire facility rather than just in a subdivision, such as imaging or surgery.

The new USP Monograph and Risk Readiness Checklist Bundle developed by American Society for Health Care Engineering and the American Society for Health Care Risk Management discusses the physical environment provisions of USP and is primarily intended for the use of health care facility managers. The accompanying checklist helps users identify areas where opportunities exist to comply with required standards. The aim of USP is to protect health care workers and patients from harm associated with exposure to hazardous drugs (HDs). Entities that handle HDs must incorporate the standards into their occupational safety plan.