Facilities Licensed by the Nevada Health Division

Not all medical offices are licensed by Nevada's Department of Health and Human Services (NV HHS).  This means that Nevada's Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance (HCQC) does not have the same jurisdiction to investigate your practice as it does in relation to facilities subject to NV HHS's licensing requirements. Although you probably know who you are (if not please find help), a list of the types of health care facilities licensed by the NV HHS can be found here: http://health.nv.gov/HCQC_HealthFacilities_WhoWeLicense.htm.

If your type of practice or facility is not on this list, make sure to take a careful look at NV HHS's or HCQC's jurisdictional powers if they request to inspect or investigate your facilities.

OIG Recovers $6.9 Billion in FY 2012

In its Semiannual Report to Congress, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) today announced expected recoveries of about $6.9 billion from audits and investigations. The report highlights OIG accomplishments for the second half of FY 2012 (April 1, 2012 - September 30, 2012) and for FY 2012 in total.

The $6.9 billion in expected recoveries consists of $923.8 million in audit receivables and $6 billion in investigative receivables. Read the full release

For comparison's sake, in FY 2011 the OIG reported recoveries of about $5.2 billion consisting which consisted of $627.8 million in audit receivables and $4.6 billion in investigative receivables.

Las Vegas Brings in More Health Compliance Inspectors

From HCQC's Newletter available here

Nevada's Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance (HCQC) recently reported that it has hired several new inspectors/investigators, assigned to the Las Vegas office. Some are brand new to the agency, others have been promoted into different roles within the agency, some transferred from education/consulting roles back into regulatory roles within the agency and others have returned to the agency after working in the industry for a period of time. HCQC welcomes this recent influx of new staff to help accomplish our workload; but also recognizes the need to provide good training and guidance and this initially renders us a little less efficient until we bring new employees up to speed. As always, our goal is to assist our industry partners in achieving high standards, through education, regulation and enforcement.

HIPAA Audits

The Office for Civil Rights announced at a recent Health Care Compliance Association conference that it will continue through 2013 the HIPAA/HITECH audit program that started this year. Significant funding has been appropriated for this purpose. Apparently a serious lack of compliance was found in the audits that were conducted and OCR is planning to continue to audit the full spectrum of covered entities in the coming year using the Audit Protocol jointly developed by OCR and KPMG.


The next round of Audits will be focused on Business Associates and Business Associate Agreements.

Fastest Growing Job: Home Health Nurse

In my last post, I mentioned that CNN Money rated home health nurse as one of the most satisfying jobs in America. Today, CNN Money lists it as the fastest growing occupation.

But can you believe they just recycled the same picture? I can.

Home Care Nurse: Top 50 of Best Jobs

CNN Money lists Home Care Nurse as #49 out of the top 100 best jobs in America.

Somehow, though, attorneys didn't even make the list.  See more at http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/49.html