68
TECHNIQUE
Endoscopic Spine Surgery
Makes it Into CMS' 2017
Fee Schedule Proposed
Rule
By Megan Wood
C
MS proposed rules for the 2017 Medicare
Physician Fee Schedule and the 2017 Hospi-
tal Outpatient Prospective Payment System.
In both proposed rules, CMS included informa-
tion on physician and hospital payment for the CPT
code 630X1 for endoscopic decompression of the
lumbar spine. The code is newly created: CPT code
630X1.
Minimally invasive endoscopic spine surgery has
recently gained traction due to favorable literature
demonstrating its efficacy. "This is a great step to-
wards the acceptance of endoscopic minimally in-
vasive spine surgery techniques and their benefits
to both the surgeon and their patients in the U.S.,"
said Wolfgang Ries, founder and CEO of joimax.
The United Kingdom decided to fully reimburse en-
doscopic spine surgeries in April 2016. n
A monobloc
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FR, FH ORTHOPEDICS S.A.S
3 rue de la Forêt
F 68990 HEIMSBRUNN
Tél. +33 3 89 81 90 92
Fax : +33 3 89 81 80 11
orthopedie@fhorthopedics.fr
www.fhorthopedics.fr
USA, FH ORTHO INC.
4118 N. Nashville Ave.
Chicago - IL 60634
Tel.: +1 773 290 1039 / 844-77 FHINC
Fax: +1 (773) 539 9328
info-us@fhorthopedics.com
www.FHortho.com
UK, FH ORTHO LTD
Suite C, Ground Floor, Conwy House
Castle Court, Swansea, SA7 9LA
Tel.: +44 (0) 1792 464792
Fax: +44 (0) 844 412 7674
customer-servicesUK@fhorthopedics.com
www.fhorthopedics.com
POLSKA, IMPLANTS INDUSTRIE
Ul. Garbary 95/A6,
61-757 Poznan
Tel: +48 61 863 81 27
Fax: +48 61 863 81 28
fh.orthopedics@poczta.internetdsl.pl
Visit us at the
GECO Spine conference
in Le Mans (Fr) on Nov. 26, 2016
GECO-SPINE2016
Advocate to Pay Largest HIPAA Settlement to Date
By Erin Dietsche
D
owners Grove, Ill.-based Advocate
Health Care has agreed to pay $5.55
million to HHS' Office for Civil Rights
to settle claims that it violated HIPAA.
e settlement is the biggest to-date HIPAA
payment involving one entity.
e allegations against Advocate, the largest
health system in Illinois, involve electronic pro-
tected health information. In 2013, the OCR
launched an investigation aer Advocate sub-
mitted three different data breach reports on be-
half of its subsidiary, Advocate Medical Group.
In total, the breaches comprised the ePHI of 4
million individuals and included their names,
demographic information, addresses, credit
card numbers, dates of birth, clinical informa-
tion and health insurance information.
The problems began in August 2013, when
four laptops containing patient information
were taken froman Advocate office in Park
Ridge, Ill., during a burglary. Later that sum-
mer, an outside party accessed an Advocate
business associate's network, which poten-
tially compromised 2,000 patients' informa-
tion. More than 2,000 more patients' infor-
mation was stolen in November 2013 when a
laptop was stolen from an Advocate employ-
ee's vehicle.
Aer conducting an investigation, the OCR
concluded that Advocate failed to assess the
risks of its ePHI, restrict physical access to its
IT systems, receive written record that its as-
sociates would protect Advocate's ePHI and
guard an unencrypted laptop while it was in an
unlocked car overnight.
"We hope this settlement sends a strong mes-
sage to covered entities that they must engage
in a comprehensive risk analysis and risk man-
agement to ensure that individuals' ePHI is
secure," said Jocelyn Samuels, director of the
OCR. "is includes implementing physical,
technical and administrative security measures
sufficient to reduce the risks to ePHI in all
physical locations and on all portable devices
to a reasonable and appropriate level."
In a statement, Advocate Health Care said,
"Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of
our patients while delivering the highest level
of care and service are our top priorities. As all
industries deal with the ever-evolving digital
landscape and the impact it has on security,
we've enhanced our data encryption measures
to prevent this type of incident from reoccur-
ring. While there continues to be no indication
that the information was misused, we deep-
ly regret any inconvenience this incident has
caused our patients. We continue to cooperate
fully with the government to advance our pa-
tient privacy protection efforts." n
