It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like the federal government is upping its enforcement game when it comes to HIPAA privacy and security.

“I do think it’s fair to say that the HIPAA enforcement environment appears to be tightening up,” said Travis Lloyd, who practices healthcare law in Nashville, Tenn., with Bradley Arant Boult Cumming. Several headline-making actions by Health and Human Services and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) last year illustrate the fact, he added.

MGMA of St. Louis prepares for mandate changes, adapts to mergers, focuses on succession planning

Nationally and locally, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement changes will top the list of priorities for practice managers to address in 2012, followed closely by a host of federal mandates and other hot-button issues.

The jury’s still out for primary prevention

Just like the phrase “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” implies, acetylsalicylic acid is a medical mainstay, one of the world’s most frequently prescribed and least expensive drugs. In fact, 100 billion aspirin tablets are produced worldwide each year. That said, there’s still a lot we don’t know about aspirin, particular when it comes to heart-attack prevention.