Month: January 2021

Changes to Open Payments: 5 New Provider Types Added

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Open Payments is an online program and public website that provides information about financial relationships between drug and medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers.

Drug and device companies must report certain payments or other transfers of value they make to physicians and teaching hospitals, including:

  • Consulting fees
  • Speaking fees
  • Honoraria
  • Payments for research activities
  • Ownership or investment interests
  • Meals and travel/lodging

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) then posts the reported data online.

Effective January 1, 2021, drug and device manufacturers must also report payments or other transfers of value they make to the following additional provider types:

  • Physician assistants
  • Nurse practitioners
  • Clinical nurse specialists
  • Certified registered nurse anesthetists and Anesthesiologist assistants
  • Certified nurse-midwives

Healthcare providers themselves are not required to report data to Open Payments. However, it behooves them to review and, if necessary, dispute payments reported about them.

Open Payments is one tool used by UConn Health’s Clinical Conflict of Interest Committee to identify relationships between clinicians and industry that may give rise to financial conflicts of interest.

For questions about Open Payments or the Clinical Conflict of Interest Committee, contact Alyssa Cunningham or Gus Fernandez-Wolff.

Celebrate Data Privacy Day!

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

January 28, 2021 is Data Privacy Day, a global effort to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices.

At UConn Health, data privacy is everyone’s responsibility! Our patients trust that we will protect their personal information, and each of us plays a role in maintaining that trust and upholding UConn Health’s strong commitment to privacy.

In honor of Data Privacy Day and every day, please remember:

Pause Your "Send"

Before you press “Send,” double check that the email addresses you are sending to are the right ones. Sending protected health information (PHI) or other confidential data to the wrong email recipient could result in a data breach and puts our patients’ privacy and UConn Health at risk. Be aware of Outlook autocompleting email addresses – always confirm that auto-complete has selected the right recipient.

Don't Make It Personal

Do not download PHI or other confidential data on personal devices. UConn Health devices use specific security measures and technology, which typically are not in place on personal devices.

No Snooping

Employees are not permitted to access patient records for non-work related reasons. This includes a family member or co-worker’s record, even when the family member/co-worker asks you to view their record. If accessing a patient’s record is not necessary for you to do your job, don’t do it!

Double Check That AVS

When handing the After Visit Summary - or any other document containing PHI - to a patient, take a moment to confirm that you have the right document for the right patient.

Share the Bare Minimum

Whether working in the office or from home, PHI should be shared on a “need to know” basis only. When your work requires the sharing of PHI ~ whether with colleagues or external parties ~ provide only the minimum amount of PHI necessary to accomplish the purpose (as stated in UConn Health’s Minimum Necessary Policy).

It’s essential that we exercise good privacy practices. Our office is here to help! Please reach out to us with any of your privacy questions or concerns. You can email us at privacyoffice@uchc.edu or you can contact a team member directly.