By Adam Turteltaub

Cancer is not just a diagnosis between a patient and physician. In this podcast Jeremy Laws, Operations Supervisor at the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System, explains that a cancer diagnosis triggers state-by-state reporting requirements for healthcare providers.

In general, there are two areas of reporting: cancer information and patient information. Cancer information generally includes where it is on the body, the type of cancer, what type of tissues is affected and how the cancer is behaving. Patient information includes name, age, sex, race, address, date of diagnosis and date of first treatment.

And, for those concerned about HIPAA, he points out that there is a public health exception that his falls squarely under.

The data provided feeds into the US Cancer Statistics Report that is published annually. It is also used by policy makers and researchers.

Compliance teams need to ensure that their facilities are reporting the data, which many fail to do. There is a tendency to believe that, for example, the lab is reporting the results and so the physician does not need to. That’s not the case, he explains. Worse, many facilities do not even know that they need to report cancer findings.

Listen in to learn more about how to ensure your health care facilities are meeting their cancer reporting requirements.