Tag Archives: American Acupuncture Council

HIPAA – The 6 Types of PHI You Never Even Thought Of

Today we are gonna talk about the 18 different types of protected health, inform information and how to relate to it in your office and how to protect it, most importantly, so that you don’t get yourselves in trouble.

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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hi, everybody. Good morning, good afternoon, whatever it may be for you. My name is Perry Barnhill with the Fearless Acupuncturist, and I want to give a big thanks to the American Acupuncture Council for bringing this to you. Today we are gonna talk about the 18 different types of protected health, inform information and how to relate to it in your office and how to protect it, most importantly, so that you don’t get yourselves in trouble.

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Slideshow please. Okay. Like I said, my name is Perry Barnhill. We teach hipaa. We’re certified in HIPAA certifications and compliance. Myself and Julie McLaughlin, we want to protect you. We want to educate you and we wanna defend you. So that you don’t get yourselves in trouble with HIPAA or with the government.

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So we’re gonna talk about some of the things that could potentially get yourselves in hot water and how to prevent those. Like I said earlier, we’re gonna talk about different types of protected health information and sometimes you may hear me say EPHI, and all that means is. Electronic protected health information.

This is the information that we have with our patients in our devices, on our computers, on our laptops, and things such as that. So believe it or not, there are 18 different types of protected health information of which we would literally go through. Each and every one of them, because there’s many of ’em you would never think are actually considered PHI.

So let’s talk about that kind of a little quiz here. We like to call the fearless quiz. What do you think are some of the different types of protected health information that you have with your patients? I’ll give you a little clue to get you started here. We all know, or most of us realize that the patient’s name would be considered part of the protective health information.

What about some other things? Just for a second, start. Start thinking about that. Okay, so we are gonna go through and we’re gonna identify each of those 18 different types. Here we go, and I’ll actually read these to you. Like I said earlier, the name of the patient or the individual or the patient’s child if you’re taking care of the child.

So obviously names are gonna be protected. Health information, an address, anything smaller than the state of residence, any date. And you know what? It includes dates that identify their onset admission, discharge date, birth dates. Even be careful with people and patients that are deceased. Okay? Bottom line is this.

As we go through these, the reason I’m bringing this to your attention is that if you are aware of all the different types of PHI, these are things that you need to be very careful about who you disclose this information to. Because if you disclose any of this information to people that shouldn’t see it or hear it, that’s actually considered a breach.

And believe it or not, we have to report the breaches. These are things we don’t want to have to do because the last thing we want to happen is have the OCR, the Office of Civil Rights, looking at all of our stuff. So let’s prevent these things in the first place so that they don’t happen. Telephone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses, even.

Social security numbers. I know most of us realize that this is a pretty important one. They’re medical record numbers. Be careful with that one. Health insurance plan, beneficiary numbers, their numbers that are on their ident, their insurance cards for identification, even account numbers, certificates or license numbers, things such as their driver’s license.

And of course, I think most of us realize that driver’s licenses can be considered PHI. The thing is that a lot of us take copies of those things, so be very careful who gets that information. Even a CPR certification number, believe it or not, passports. I think that makes sense to most of us.

But what about this one, VIN numbers or even license plate numbers? And the thing I wanna elaborate about, the license plate numbers are, many of us will do patient testimonials. Sometimes we’ll do videos of the office and in the office parking lot there’s cars. But in that same video or in the same photo is the car in your office name.

So guess what? Somebody could go online. Check that license number, and I’m not saying they were going they will, but it’s possible and the government doesn’t care whether it was possible, probable, or very likely. If it’s something that you accidentally disclosed and it was linked to the patient and their information somehow was breached, then you’re the one that gets in trouble.

So be very aware of that. Here’s some more device identifiers or serial numbers on the medical devices and treatments that you use during procedures. Web, universal, URLs, internet protocols or IP addresses, biometric identifiers, facial recognition, fingerprint scans, even tattoos. Be careful. You have to be so careful that let’s say for example, someone has a tattoo on their arm and you take a picture and maybe put it up on the internet or somehow it gets out.

And it gets linked back to your office, that could potentially be considered a breach. So be very aware of that. Full face photos, yes, if you do full face photos or you’re doing testimonials, this is where the supplies is. You have to get your patient’s authorization to do and guess what? In our HIPAA program, we have patient authorization video forms, all the things that you need to do that or any other uniquely identifi, num, numbers, characteristics, or even codes.

So here’s my big point on this. Know the different types of PHI. If you know what they are, the likelihood that you’re going to disclose those inadvertently or accidentally are gonna become much less. Therefore, the odds are reduced, that you’ll have the government in there looking at your manuals and everything like that.

That doesn’t excuse the fact to not have one. But of course, we wanna prevent accidents, if you will, from happening before they occur, and then life is much better for all of us. One of the things we talk about all the time is the importance, not just the importance, but the requirement, the legality that we’re required to do monthly, or let me say this ongoing required training for hipaa.

So we do what we call monthly HIPAA training. Each and every month we do a training. And guess what? This can be one of your monthly trainings. You can scan the QR code right there, and then what’ll pop up is this form. This form has those 18 different types of unique identifiers on there. For PHI, you sit down with your staff document.

Remember, if you don’t document it, it didn’t happen, document your training with your staff. If you have a staff, if it’s just you, it’s easy, but you still need to document that. You did the training on different types of PHI. This will help you go a long ways. In the case of an audit, it’s not the only thing you need, obviously, but it’s one of the pieces of the puzzle.

Like I said earlier, document your monthly training in your manual. You can download HIPAA compliance checklist. We have these ’cause a lot of practitioners ask us, I’m not sure if I’m have compliant. One of the things I will say, if you’re not sure, the likelihood is that you’re probably not.

That’s why you may be asking that question. This is a great checklist. Go through these things. If you can’t check off every one of these. It’s very unlikely that you’re HIPAA compliant, so make sure you do this. You can scan this QR code here and you’ll get this list to check for yourself in your office.

If you have any questions, don’t ever hesitate to reach out to us. Couple different things you can do here. If you want to schedule a demo and check out the HIPAA program and all the training that we have, just go to go dot fearless provider.com. Slash demo or you can simply scan the QR code over there.

The other thing too is if you just want to get started and make sure you become HIPAA compliant, you can go to ww dot fearless acupuncturist.com. And like I said, if you have any questions, more than happy to help you. Myself and Julia, more than happy to help. You can contact me at Dr. Perry at better HIPAA blueprint.

Dot com. Don’t hesitate to reach out. In the meantime, everybody, I want to say thank you again and thanks to the A A C for hosting this short webinar on the 18 different points of protected health information. And everybody, have an amazing day. Have an amazing rest of your week, and I will talk to you later.

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Acupuncture and Traumatic Brain Injury

Is acupuncture an effective treatment for patients suffering from traumatic brain injury?

Traumatic brain injury causes cognitive dysfunction and long-term impairments.

About 1.7 million people suffer from traumatic brain injury, and at least 2.4 million emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths are related to traumatic brain injuries each year.

In a study of 2,163 traumatic brain injury patients, 237 received acupuncture in the treatment period and had an over 2 times higher chance of achieving a significant improvement.

This study’s findings suggested that acupuncture treatment is effective for the recovery of consciousness, and that conventional treatment combined with acupuncture tends to reach better outcomes compared to conventional treatment alone.

Remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.

There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.

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Reasonable Treatment Amount Per Visit?

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Acupuncture and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Is acupuncture beneficial for people suffering with Inflammatory Bowel disease (IBD)?

There is now growing research supporting the potential benefits of acupuncture for IBD.

Some studies reported that acupuncture improved GI symptoms, including: abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, nausea, and alleviating inflammation.

Some clinical trials also found that following acupuncture the intestinal microbial composition changed closer to normal and the levels of pro-inflammatory signaling molecules were significantly reduced.

Further studies are needed to better define the benefit of acupuncture in IBD patients.

Healthcare continues to evolve toward less-invasive, natural, and drug-free methods, with acupuncture now becoming a first-line complementary healthcare choice.

Remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.

There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.

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Safety Considerations When Purchasing A Microneedling Device

So the first thing you want to look at when you are considering purchasing a device and you’re looking at safety features is the weight.

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Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an author, and I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you about safety concerns when purchasing a microneedling device. So there are a lot of microneedling devices out. On the market now, and I’m not here to try to sell you one, but the American Acupuncture Council is an insurance agency, and so safety is very important to them, and it should be very important to us as practitioners, both the safety of our patients and Our peace of mind when we are taking on a practice, whether it’s acupuncture, needling, or in this case, if we are doing microneedling.

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So the first thing you want to look at when you are considering purchasing a device and you’re looking at safety features is the weight. Of the pen itself and the reason why this is important, if you are doing a lot of microneedling, then if your pen is too heavy, your hand will get tired, and you may not have the consistency across the face, neck, chest, hands, wherever you’re going to be microneedling that you would have with a lighter device.

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Now that said, you don’t want to buy a product that is merely made out of aluminum, which is very lightweight, but it’s not going to be durable, and then you can run it into other problems with the product. Breaking or just not lasting very long. Something that is aluminum and stainless steel will give you the durability and also the lightness that you are looking for.

The next important thing when you’re looking at safety in a device is how easy is it for it to use and to adjust? So there should be two adjustments on any microneedle pen. And the first one, which is also a safety feature, is the speed. So in this particular pen, the. Speed, which is indicated by these different numbers is easily visible.

And so you know exactly what speed the pen is operating at. What does speed mean? The speed is how quickly the needles go up and down. So if they’re going too slowly. So we refer to this as RPMs. If it’s going too slowly, it can actually tear at the skin, and so you don’t want a pen that isn’t at least 16,000 RPMs with 18,000 being the kind of gold standard for professional microneedle devices.

The next feature. Setting is, if you look at the pen here, there’s numbers on the. Pen and these numbers indicate how deep the needles will penetrate into the skin. Professional micro noodle devices typically will adjust from zero. To 2.5 millimeters and usually when you are using a microneedle pen, you’re going to start out around 0.25 and you really, when you’re working on the phase, really don’t wanna go over 1.0 millimeters.

The next important safety feature that we’re looking at. So these numbers should be easy to read even if you have a protective sleeve over the pen, and it should be easy to adjust without any confusion about. What number you’re at. Next is the actual cartridges themselves and the cartridges you purchased should be pre sterilized.

And this is usually done through a gas process and. The package itself should be sealed. It should be dated, and it should be easy to open. So heal them open and. The cartridge itself should not be a screw type, and the reason is screw type cartridges can pop off the pen. You want something that has a bayonet.

Tight, and you’ll see this is a three prong bayonet. You want a bayonet type, which when you put it into the pen, it will click on nice and tight, and you don’t have to worry about the cartridge popping off. So another. Important feature of buying a professional pen should be some sort of anti backflow technology.

So let’s break this down. What does that mean, anti backflow technology? The prongs when they go into the pen should. Fit into sorry, my camera’s reversed, so you can actually see right inside there. There are three little holes inside the pen and there are three. Places where the pen connects and then there are three hall.

Let me do it this way. Let’s see, trying to get the right light. You can see, almost see there’s three holes here on the cartridge itself. So these three prongs go into the hu inside the pen, and they fit like this, and then you push it on. And once it’s connected, it stays connected. Also, the needles should be protected with a tip so that when you open the package up, if you put the cartridge down, the needles aren’t exposed.

But don’t forget to take the tip off before you do your microneedling. Then as you adjust the pen, you can see the needles will come out over the top, just like that. You see that? So that’s adjusted. Right now I am all the way up at 2.5, but you would never, so that’s how deep those needles would be going into the skin.

Perhaps you could use that on acne scar on the back or the chest, or stretch marks on a leg, but you would never have the needles out that far for working on the face. So we’ve talked about some of the actual safety fit features of a pen. So lightweight, easy to read display, easy to read, and easily adjustable numbers, the cartridge, pre sterilized, and individual packets.

And good connection, no backflow, so that when you’re microneedling any serums that are on the face you really shouldn’t have any body fluids coming out. But any serums that are on the face do not go back into the pen itself. And lastly your device should have, should come with a couple of rechargeable batteries.

And that way if you are in the middle of microneedling and your battery dies, you have a backup. And just as an extra backup, should you have a really busy day and you. Forget to charge your batteries or you just completely use up the batteries, both of them having a cord that you can plug in. Sorry, mine is in a case.

Having a nice long cord that you can plug in. To the same sort of instead of a battery, this would be something that shows you the speed and controls the pen just like the battery does, except this plugs into the wall. Having a nice long cord so that if your treatment table is not anywhere near a, an outlet, you have plenty room to work with.

So last but not least, having good instruction manual, something that is also easy to read, very important having. Nice pretty pictures and what each one of the parts does and all the contraindications and precautions. And this will ensure that you don’t that you actually know what you’re doing or what each one of the parts or four.

So I just wanted to give you that. Quick overview on safety and kind of what to look for when you’re purchasing a microneedle device. There are a lot of knockoff products and multifunctional devices that maybe or not. Designed just to do microneedling, and I would caution you that these devices probably are not very good.

If you try to do too much in one tool, you’re not really going to be very good at any one thing. So if your pen has red light or if your pen does microcurrent. It’s not going to be as good as a dedicated red light device or a dedicated microcurrent device, or as a dedicated microneedle pen. Wanna thank you again and.

I look forward to speaking to you next time. We will be. I also will be talking a little bit about marketing and so stay tuned for that. Thank you so much.

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Improvement in Long-COVID Symptoms Using Acupuncture

Can acupuncture improve symptoms from long-COVID syndrome?

According to the CDC, millions of U.S. adults and children have been affected by long-COVID syndrome.

Long-COVID syndrome is a serious illness that can result in chronic conditions requiring comprehensive care and may cause disability.

A case study of a 46-year-old male who received acupuncture showed reduced symptoms and signs of long-COVID syndrome.

This study concluded that acupuncture appears to have been helpful for a patient with long-COVID syndrome.

Healthcare continues to evolve toward less-invasive, natural, and drug-free methods, with acupuncture now becoming a first-line complementary healthcare choice.

Remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.

There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.

Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!