AAPC-CPCO Certified Professional Compliance Officer - Set 4 - Part 3

Correct Answer: Placing a matter in a post office for delivery

The mail fraud statute requires a scheme or artifice to defraud plus a use of the mail for executing it, such as placing any matter in a post office or authorized depository to be delivered by the Postal Service. Option a is incorrect because transmission by wire, radio, or television in interstate or foreign commerce is the act that defines wire fraud, a separate offense in its own section. Option b is incorrect because embezzlement from pension and welfare funds is a distinct offense named among RICO predicate acts, not an act that the mail fraud statute describes. Option c is incorrect because passport offenses are listed as separate racketeering activity in the RICO definition, and the mail fraud statute does not mention passports.

Correct Answer: Applicable State or other law

Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a covered entity may disclose or provide access to a parent if State or other law, including case law, permits or requires it, and may not if such law prohibits it. Option b is incorrect because the regulation ties parental access to what the law permits, requires or prohibits, and gives no weight to the reason a parent states. Option c is incorrect because the regulation does not set an age threshold here; it turns on the minor being unemancipated and on what applicable law provides. Option d is incorrect because an internal policy cannot override the regulation, which makes permission or prohibition depend on applicable law including case law, not on organizational preference.

Correct Answer: Record it on the OSHA 300 Log

Under the general recording criteria, medical treatment beyond first aid makes a work-related injury recordable by itself. The employer must record it on the OSHA 300 Log even without days away, restriction, or lost consciousness. Option a is incorrect because that box is shared by job transfer and restricted work cases, and this employee had neither, so it does not fit the facts. Option c is incorrect because the general recording criteria list days away as just one of several triggers, and each listed result independently makes a case recordable. Option d is incorrect because a diagnosed significant injury is an additional criterion, not a prerequisite; medical treatment beyond first aid already meets the criteria by itself.

Correct Answer: Auditor hired to evaluate the safety program

Under the OSHA recordkeeping privacy rule, an employer that voluntarily discloses the forms must remove identifying information, except for an auditor or consultant hired to evaluate the safety and health program, claims processing, or certain public health or law enforcement uses. Option a is incorrect because family members are not named as exceptions in the rule, so the voluntary disclosure would have to omit identifying information about the employee. Option b is incorrect because the regulation lists no exception for trade groups, so names and identifying details must be removed or hidden before the forms are shared. Option c is incorrect because a business partner is not among the listed exceptions, which means the employer must hide employee names and other personally identifying information.

Correct Answer: It is a new case

The basic recording requirement says an employer must record each fatality, injury and illness that is work-related, is a new case, and meets one or more of the general recording criteria or the specific-case rules. Option a is incorrect because the recording requirement covers each fatality, injury and illness, so death is only one type of covered event and not a required element. Option b is incorrect because records kept for another agency can satisfy OSHA's requirements in some circumstances, but filing with another agency is not a condition that makes a case recordable. Option d is incorrect because a memorandum of understanding only bears on whether OSHA accepts another agency's records as meeting its requirements, and says nothing about whether a case is recordable.

Correct Answer: Broken capillary tube

The standard defines contaminated sharps as any contaminated object that can penetrate the skin, and its examples include needles, scalpels, broken glass, broken capillary tubes, and exposed ends of dental wires. Option a is incorrect because a rack is an item or surface that may be contaminated, yet it is not an object able to penetrate the skin. Option b is incorrect because a gown soiled with blood or other potentially infectious materials falls under the separate definition of contaminated laundry, not contaminated sharps. Option c is incorrect because gauze can be soiled with blood, but it cannot penetrate the skin, so the definition of contaminated sharps does not cover it.

Correct Answer: Written Exposure Control Plan

The OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens standard requires each employer with an employee who has occupational exposure to establish a written Exposure Control Plan designed to eliminate or minimize employee exposure. Option a is incorrect because universal precautions is an approach to infection control that treats human blood and certain body fluids as infectious; it is a concept, not the required written plan. Option b is incorrect because research laboratories are defined as labs using research-scale amounts of HIV or HBV, and the standard does not name a protocol as the general employer requirement. Option d is incorrect because work practice controls are controls that alter how a task is performed, such as prohibiting two-handed recapping, and are one part of compliance methods rather than the plan.

Correct Answer: Type and brand of device involved

The sharps injury log must contain, at a minimum, the type and brand of device involved, the department or work area of the exposure incident, and an explanation of how the incident occurred. Option a is incorrect because names and job titles are required in training records for attendees, while the sharps injury log must be kept in a way that protects employee confidentiality. Option c is incorrect because qualifications are listed for persons conducting training, and the log's minimum content does not call for information about treating personnel. Option d is incorrect because session dates belong to the training records, which are a separate record set with their own 3-year retention period.

Correct Answer: Placing matter with a private interstate carrier

Wire fraud requires a scheme to defraud, a transmission by wire, radio, or television in interstate or foreign commerce, and a purpose of executing the scheme. Depositing matter with a private interstate carrier is a mail fraud act. Option a is incorrect because the statute ties the transmission to executing the scheme, so this purpose is required rather than incidental. Option b is incorrect because the statute requires a transmission, or causing one, by these means in interstate or foreign commerce, so it is a genuine element. Option d is incorrect because this is the core element of the offense: the statute begins with a person who has devised or intends to devise such a scheme.

Correct Answer: Investing that income in an interstate enterprise

RICO subsection (a) makes it unlawful for a person who received income from a pattern of racketeering activity to use or invest that income, directly or indirectly, in acquiring, establishing or operating an enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce. Option a is incorrect because this describes wire fraud, a separate offense in the mail fraud chapter of Title 18, not the income-use prohibition in RICO subsection (a). Option b is incorrect because bribery appears in the RICO definitions as a kind of racketeering activity, so it is a predicate act rather than the prohibited use of income. Option c is incorrect because subsection (a) expressly exempts such purchases when there is no intent to control the issuer and holdings stay under one percent of a class.