I just posted a new sample fundraising policy in the Premium Member section of this website at www.veteranspress.com. The HITECH Act strengthened HIPAA’s patient protection against unwanted fundraising. The Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) has been finding that, when the covered entity does not have a policy in place, breaches that could have been addressed in such a policy now constitute willful neglect. A finding of willful neglect greatly increases the possible civil money penalties (fines). Therefore, a fundraising policy may be a wise addition to your HIPAA policy library. Use the new editable sample fundraising policy posted in the Premium Member section, adapt it to your organization, adopt it, implement it, and cause all involved to sign it. Of course, as with all other policies and procedures in your HIPAA documents quiver, adopting it without enforcing it is of little use.

While you are implementing this new policy, you may find that you need to take some time to go through all of your policies and procedures to make sure that they are current and still applicable. Check the Premium Section for other new policies that you may want to implement, and assuming that you have recently bought the latest version of the HIPAA Documents Resource Center CD (5^th ed.), check the CD to see whether you need to implement any other policies and procedures. If you do not have the latest version of the CD and the rest of the HIPAA Compliance Library, you can order what you are missing from our website or call our office for preferred customer pricing at 913-341-8783 or toll free at 855-341-8783.