Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more common in dental practices — from drafting emails and summarizing notes to helping with scheduling, marketing, and clinical documentation. While these tools can improve efficiency, California dentists should remember that using AI does not…
Dental Bytes – May 2026 Understanding dental record retention requirements is essential for every dental practice. Properly maintaining patient records supports continuity of care, ensures compliance with HIPAA and OSHA considerations, and helps protect the practice in the event of…
Dental Bytes – March 2026 features timely articles for dental professionals on oral health awareness, HIPAA security, infection control, nutrition guidance, and industry updates.
While a dentist owns patient treatment records, they must provide patients with access to their records and/or a summary of their records. A patient record includes x-rays, photographs, and models, and can include any written or recorded information regarding a…
The California Medical Information Act (CMIA), which differs slightly from the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), was updated in 2004 to require healthcare providers to obtain annual written authorization from a patient for certain disclosures of protected…
It seems like almost every other day, the national media reports on a new data breach. From large corporations to mom-and-pop local businesses, hackers do not discriminate on their targets. Small and mid-sized businesses like dental practices are often targeted…
The Security Rule under the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires dental providers, as HIPAA-covered entities, to adopt adequate means for safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (ePHI). One of these safeguards…
Recently, the US Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR)announced three separate Resolution Agreements for potential violations by healthcare providers. The first incident involved a potential violation of federal civil rights laws, while the second…
On December 14, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) announced a resolution agreement with New Vision Dental, a dental practice in California, over the impermissible disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) in response to online reviews,…
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released a new edition of its online OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter, dated October 2022. The Newsletter reviews security procedures to follow in the event of a…
