Loading
In light of news this week that Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had released a resolution agreement for Idaho State University’s (ISU) 2011 health data breach, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) comments on HIPAA/HITECH compliance at the 6th Annual more »
Cloud computing technology options continues to grow in number by the day for healthcare organizations and discerning what the best products and services are can be challenging. But regardless of what type of cloud technology an organization uses, having confidence more »
The State of California Office of Health Information Integrity (CalOHII) is taking a unique approach to educating covered healthcare organizations and providers in the state about matters of patient consent and authorization for health information exchange. Dubbed the HIE Consent more »
As the Sept. 23, 2013 compliance date for the HIPAA omnibus rule creeps closer, many healthcare organizations are reviewing their current policies and procedures. One area that may fly under the radar but is critical to HIPAA compliance is an more »
To help prepared HIPAA covered entities for the new omnibus rule coming into effect on Sept. 23, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has planned four free HIPAA omnibus webinars between June 14 more »
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its Special Publication 800-53 Revision 4, titled Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations, in April and some of the content included is pertinent to healthcare organizations. NIST’s collection more »
One of the core issues for health data breach victims over the past few years has been the refrain that the incident was an anomaly and won’t happen again. Viewing a breach as a rogue incident would exacerbate the problem more »
Yesterday’s HIT Policy Committee Privacy & Security Tiger Team meeting explored the next steps in its query/response Scenario 3 and evaluated the public comments it has received so far on the topic of Stage 3 Meaningful Use privacy and security more »
During a recent hearing titled “Does HIPAA help or hinder patient care and public safety?” in front of U.S. House Oversight and Investigation subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, multiple parents denounced HIPAA for its perceived restrictive language. But more »
According to in-house HHS attorney Iliana Peters, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be offering additional guidance on the HIPAA omnibus rule. Rachel Seeger, Senior Health Information Privacy Outreach Specialist for the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), told more »
Highland Solutions, a hosting and services vendor, recently announced that it had expanded its enterprise offerings into healthcare and become HIPAA compliant as a business associate (BA). But what exactly does that entail from a vendor’s perspective? HealthITSecurity.com spoke with more »
One of the biggest questions surrounding BYOD has been whether healthcare data could be transmitted and stored in a secure manner while employees use their own personal devices. Large mobile cloud applications such as DropBox are the ideal solution, but more »
The process of sharing protected health information (PHI) is wrought with many challenges. Entities covered under HIPAA and its recent update in the omnibus rule have the legal responsibility to safeguard PHI by putting the right policies, procedures, and agreements more »
With intent to ascertain whether HIPAA truly is an obstruction to accessing mental health patient data to enter into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for gun purchases, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a more »
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) is telling healthcare organizations that they are still able to submit their recommendations to the HITRUST Cybersecurity Working Group in relation to the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF). But there is also more immediate more »
Following a recent Yuma, Ari. Fire Department patient data breach, there are more healthcare data security problems in Yuma. More than 500 behavioral and mental health patients have had their data compromised as a result of a thief taking an more »
Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) want a healthcare IT do-over in the U.S. The group released a white paper titled REBOOT: Re-examining the Strategies Needed more »
The new HIPAA omnibus rule will have a considerable impact on HIPAA covered entities, business associates (BAs) and subcontractors, but law firms representing both covered entities and BAs can offer unique perspective on how each side is affected by new more »
The second annual Healthcare Information Security Today survey revealed six emerging healthcare security trends. It hit on all of the key healthcare security pain points for professionals and showed how organizations are dealing with new HIPAA rules and what they’re more »
Richard Faircloth has brought a class action lawsuit against Adventist Health System/Sunbelt, Inc. for violating the privacy rights of other patients at the Florida hospital, according to court documents acquired by Law360. Faircloth, a former patient of the hospital, filed more »
A federal New York court recently handed out prison sentences to conclude a cringe-worthy 1,000-patient data breach that dates back to 2003. This is a seminal case both because of its egregious nature and the fact that it’s among the more »
Part of the Obama administration’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 budget was the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed budget and a large area of concentration was on health information privacy and security. The requested Office of the National more »
In yet another case where the lines between HIPAA and state law have been blurred, the Northern Florida Appeals Court had to discern between how state law language and federal privacy laws should be interpreted. The court decided that HIPAA more »
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent out an email this morning with additions to its HIPAA Administrative Simplification Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS). While many of these FAQs don’t necessarily provide new information, they are helpful in hashing more »
With the HIPAA omnibus rule going into effect recently and the compliance date coming in September, not just healthcare providers are preparing but vendors as well. Below are a couple of recent offerings that are meant to help providers become more »
