Reference no: EM133536506

Question

You are a managing partner and CEO of FinalMed, which is a multi-specialty practice located in Anywhere, USA, an urban center with a population of 125,000. Many of FinalMed's patients are covered by Medicaid after the state expanded its program to provide access to healthcare after the Affordable Care Act was implemented. In April 2011, FinalMed discovered that one of its scheduling clerks had passed personal information on 959 patients onto her husband. With this information, her husband submitted over $1 million in false claims to multiple insurance companies, including Medicaid and Medicare. In addition, her husband sold this medical information to individuals in need of health care who did not have insurance. The fraud was discovered when one male patient was denied a mortgage due to an alleged outstanding unpaid medical bill of $42,000 for bilateral breast augmentation, and another patient who did not have diabetes erroneously received diabetes medication following an automobile accident. The individual who purchased her medical identity did have diabetes. Based on your understanding of HIPAA and the HITECH Act,

Explain the impact of HIPAA and the HITECH Act on multi-specialty physician practices, such as FinalMed. As managing partner and CEO.