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A dental associate agreement should define compensation by production or collections, preserve the dentist’s clinical judgment, assign schedule and staffing responsibilities, and make termination, patient records, post-employment restrictions, and professional liability workable.
How a medical, dental, or behavioral health practice can text patients within HIPAA: reasonable safeguards, confidential-communication requests, the Security Rule, texting vendors as business associates, staff devices, CMS QSO-24-05, record capture, and a one-page policy.
A physician can agree on an annual salary and still have a compensation dispute because the contract never defines what happens around the salary.
What the current HIPAA Security Rule requires in 2026: flexibility and addressable specifications, risk analysis and management, administrative, physical, and technical safeguards, documentation, business associates, recognized security practices, and penalties.
What the HIPAA right of access requires of a medical practice: the thirty-day deadline, form and format, third-party directives after Ciox, cost-based fees, narrow denial grounds, records vendors, the Illinois records statute, and a request log that prevents complaints.
How the HIPAA breach notification clock works: when discovery occurs, the exceptions and four-factor risk assessment, notice to individuals, media, and HHS, business associates, law enforcement delay, and the Illinois Attorney General notice under 815 ILCS 530/50.
A practical opening sequence for covered-entity status, risk analysis, vendor contracts, patient rights, training, and incident readiness before the practice relies on systems that handle PHI.
The business associate agreement clauses a practice should read before signing: required terms under 45 C.F.R. 164.504(e), permitted uses and de-identification, breach reporting timing, subcontractors, costs and indemnity, order of precedence, return of data, and proposed Security Rule changes.
Where the proposed HIPAA Security Rule overhaul (90 Fed. Reg. 898) stands in 2026, what it would require, how compliance dates would work, OCR risk-analysis enforcement, and which controls to fund before a final rule.
What an accurate and thorough HIPAA risk analysis contains: the required elements, scoping all ePHI, threats that fit the organization, risk levels, the management plan, evidence for an investigation, tools, frequency, and ownership.