As reported recently on Bloomsberg News, pharmaceutical companies are using patient PHI to market their products, even though they are not allowed to have access to this information in accordance with HIPAA regulations, HIPAA covered entities are not allowed to...
In order to adhere with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations it is vitally important that all healthcare and health plan suppliers use appropriate security measures to keep the personal and medical information of employees and patients safe....
The Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County has revealed that a now departed member of staff has inappropriately accessed a database containing the medical records of up to 230,000 patients. The database included personal information of parents and children who...
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC) hasreported a 2 million-record HIPAA breach by Xerox to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. Allegedly Xerox did not returned PHI following the termination of the service...
The Department of Health and Human Services’ HIPAA Security Rule has said, in an official release, that healthcare entities and their business associates must put in place measures to protect private and confidential data of patients. Many healthcare organizations...
An appeal against the $1.44 million award for damages by Walgreen Co. has been lost. The group was it was ordered to pay the fine after a HIPAA Privacy Rule breach lead to confidential patient PHI being shared with unauthorized people. This is the first time that the...
Software companies and mobile phone application developers are worried about HIPAA regulations and have argues that the legislation is hampering new innovation. The industry has recognized the for stringent controls to ensure data is recorded, stored and transmitted...
A recent ruling by the Connecticut Supreme Court could allow for an influx of lawsuits from victims of theft and fraud who have had their secured private health information disclosed and have suffered losses or harm due to this. The case of Emily Byrne vs. Avery...
The CMS has announced that the rule that a national health plan identifier must be used for transactions has now been “delayed until further notice”. The Office of E-Health Standards and Services of the CMS previously decreed in 2012 that it would require health...
On October 2, The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a report to congress providing guidance and recommendations on how new technology can be used in healthcare and how the safe exchange of health information can...
A supplierer diagnostic radiology services has revealed that it has experienced a data breach that has potentially exposed the billing information and personal identifiers of 307,000 individuals from all across the U.S.A. Touchstone Medical Imaging, LLC found that an...
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing has, accidentally, disclosed protected health information on patients and is in breach of HIPAA regulations following a recent mailshot. The breach has now been publicly revealed and the patients affected...
The Solaris Hospice is one of the main palliative care centers in the Southwest – working from 16 locations to provide care and support for more than 400 patients every day. The hospice’s workforce of 150 physicians and nurses work in a vast rural area in which...
On Tuesday 30th September, California Governor Edmund Brown signed off on new legislation to improve the level of privacy protection for citizens of California. The new set of bills introduced a number of amendments to the legislation which included more transparent...
The main focus at the the 7th annual conference, Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance Through HIPAA Security held this month in Washington D.C. was to highlight the current state of health information management and to explore the use of information...
Aventura Hospital and Medical Center has announced a new security breach, the third suffered in the last two years, which has affected up to 82,601 individuals. The healthcare provider has only recently discovered the breach, although it started just a single day...
The second round of HIPAA compliance audits has been put off until 2015 to give the OCR additional time to test its new internet portal. This next round of audits was initially scheduled to take place this fall. The new web portal is one of the new initiatives to...
In the wake of high profile data breaches in recent months, in particular the breach of PHI across 209 hospitals run by CHS, compliance with HIPAA regulations is now high on the agenda, especially considering the large penalties being applied by the OCR. Any data...
The recently passed HIPAA Omnibus Rule, normally labelled as the Megarule due to its extensive amendments to existing legislation , updates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996) expanding its reach to include business associates of healthcare...
Violations of HIPAA regulations, failures to ensure compliance and for accidentally causing the privacy of patients to be compromised will lead to healthcare organizations facing heavy fines. Criminal charges may also be filed if it can be proven that data was viewed...
An Illinois a class action lawsuit that arose from the Massive HIPAA breach affecting the healthcare provider last August has been thrown out by circuit court in Kane County. The incident possibly exposed the data of almost 4 million patients when four unencrypted...
A civil action lawsuit arising from HIPAA violations caused by a physician at the Johns Hopkins Health System has been settled for a $190 million. The settlement arose due to a HIPAA Privacy Rule violation caused by an obstetrician and gynecologist who had used a...
Texan prosecutors recent;y filed an indictment in the Tyler District Court against Joshua Hippler, a 30-year-old former worker at an unnamed hospital in East Texas. In accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, individuals and...
Over the past year the number of reported violations of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations has gone through the roof. The Department of Health and Human Services has seen a massive increase in late 2013 with the upward trend...
The state of healthcare compliance in the US has been reviewed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, following a survey carried out this summer. A report on the survey findings has now been released with the results showing that compliance is often not being given the importance...
A recent comparative study completed on mobile phone users on both sides of the Atlantic has shown the differences and similarities in opinions about the security of mobile phones and the data they carry. The survey, operated by iReach Insights for Inhance...
TigerText has revealed it will be presenting a free healthcare communications webinar in which former HHS regulator Adam Greene will be speaking about best practices for introducing a HIPAA-compliant mobile communications strategy. “Ask the Experts: Tips for a HIPAA...
The largest ever financial penalty for violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules has been issued this by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the HHS issue. The data breach was happened when a...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has revealed that it is to restart HIPAA compliance audit program this fall. Phase 2 will include 350 compliance audits which will be carried out on healthcare providers, healthcare clearing houses and health plans, along with 50 more...
Carrying out an in depth risk assessment is a requirement under the HIPAA Security Rule; however it can be a complex process calling for all potential security weaknesses to be identified. The process can be a major task for any organization, especially when the...
A recent announcement from the Ponemon Institute has shown the serious threat cyber attacks pose the healthcare industry and should serve as a warning that security must be improved. The cost to the industry is massive. Data breaches are estimated to cost the...
The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services is moving closer to commencing the next round of HIPAA compliance audits issuing a notice in the Federal Register stating its intention to begin a series 1,200 pre-audit surveys. The OCR is...
A new data security report issud by healthcare IT security firm Redspin suggests the number of data breaches made known to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has increased by 138% over the course of the past year. The final figures could yet be even...
All covered entities must submit annual reports of HIPAA breaches to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and the deadline for filing 2013 breaches is coming quickly. While there is a requirement under the Breach Notification Rule for healthcare...
Windows XP will no longer be HIPAA or meaningful use compliant in six weeks on some or all workstations, so there is a deadline of April 8 for organizations to migrate to a new OS as Windows XP of face possible penalties for breaching HIPAA. Any organization using...
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has revealed that version seven of the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) – due to be issed later this month – will include a number of new privacy controls. HITRUST was set up in 2007 with the aim of helping the...
President Obama is increasing up efforts to minimize gun violence; however some legal obstacles remain and the HIPAA Privacy Rule is currently obstructing the reporting of important information to the National Criminal Background Check System. The NCBC allows gun...
A new HIPAA security breach has been discovered in Virginia involving 919 patients from the Riverside Health System which runs five hospitals in the Southeast Virginia area. The data violation did not involve tens of thousands of patients although the security breach...
