A Business Associate (BA) of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has issued a notification to  the healthcare center, and many other clients, of a HIPAA breach caused by a member of staff. The now former staff member is accused of having stolen the records of...

According to HIPAA Rules, healthcare providers and other covered entities (CEs) are allowed to use the Protected Health Information (PHI) of patients – and share this data with others – provided that this data has been de-identified. It must not be possible for PHI...

Protected Health Information (PHI) is kept secure  under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Rules, which requires adherence from covered entities (CEs) to put in place a number of controls to ensure that healthcare data is not disclosed to...

The second round of HIPAA compliance audits have yet to commence, the last round was  in 2012, but they are supposedly returning and will be bigger and bolder than before. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) indicated to...

Microsoft Office 365 cloud services for the healthcare industry has been awarded the highest possible HITRUST CSF rating – achieving a maximum score of five – in a certification review of its security and privacy controls begun by Centura Health. The Health...

Law firm, Day Pitney LLP, has released a warning to healthcare workers to be careful when disclosing Protected Health Information, even when asked to supply medical records to attorneys under subpoena. A Connecticut Supreme Court ruling in November 2014 allowed a...

The last month has seen  one HIPAA data breach affecting 150,000 individuals and another where affecting 11 million individuals. Both incidents have were experienced this month, with the most recent large data breach affecting almost three times the number of...

An Illinois house committee will be meeting soon to debate the privacy issues raised by the installation of web based video cameras in nursing home residents’ bedrooms and how HIPAA Rules and the Wiretap Act regulations can be complied with, according to a recent CBS...

The Medical College of Wisconsin has release a statement revealing that a data breach suffered has affected approximately 400 of its patients. WDJT Milwaukee, an affiliate of CBS, was contacted on Feb 28, 2015 by a spokesperson for the Medical College of Wisconsin...

The Aventura HIPAA breach, discovered in June 2014, has lead to a lawsuit being filed by a patient of the hospital, according to a Courthouse News Service report. The lawsuit was taken by Aventura patient, Kellie Lynn Case, in the Miami Federal Court. She is claiming...

Recent progress in technology have allowed wearable devices to be developed to monitor health and fitness, and while these gadgets, monitors and sensors can significantly improve healthcare, they also carry a great danger of HIPAA violation. Over the past year the...

Late last week the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee revealed thathealthcare IT security is to be addressed and that it will “take up the matter as part of a bipartisan review of health information security”. The Associate Press Agency reports...

The deadline for making security breaches, affecting less than 500 people, from 2014 known is coming in the next three weeks. Any healthcare supplier or other covered entity that has not filed all 2014 breach reports must ensure they have all beensubmitted – and are...

The HHS has reacted to a letter sent by Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) asking for greater transparency on HIPAA Rules relating to the mobile health industry, and has confirmed that the OCR will be working more closely with the industry to ensure HIPAA Rules are...

  The App Association (ACT) – an advocacy and educational group set up to represent mobile app developers – recently wrote to the Office for Civil Rights seeking clarification on HIPAA privacy rules, and how they apply to mobile developers. Developers are eager...

After the success of its HIPAA Enterprise Platform, Caspio has revealed it will now be offering HIPAA Compliant Professional Services for App Development, Caspio, a major cloud platform provider, offers its platform-as-a-service to businesses and groups in the public...

January 1 normally sees many announcements from hospitals around the country advising the public of the first babies to be born in the New Year; however 2015 has seen less hospitals opting to make the announcements. Many healthcare suppliers have made the decision not...

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...