HIPAA Physical Safeguards

How to Properly Dispose of Paper Medical Records, Physical PHI Under HIPAA

December 27, 2022 - Improper disposal of protected health information (PHI) can result in HIPAA violations, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigations, and hefty fines. For example, in August 2022, OCR settled a case with a Massachusetts-based dermatology practice after discovering that empty specimen containers with labels that included PHI were thrown away in an unsecured garbage bin in the...


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Common HIPAA Physical Safeguards Under The HIPAA Security Rule

by Editorial Staff

HIPAA physical safeguards are an essential aspect to any covered entity’s PHI security, but could easily be overlooked. Technical safeguards and administrative safeguards could easily be pushed to...

What is the HIPAA Security Rule?

by Jill McKeon

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) required the HHS secretary to develop rules for safeguarding electronic protected health information (ePHI). Out of these requirements, HHS created the HIPAA Privacy...

Understanding Physical Safeguards, Healthcare Data Security

by Sara Heath

When creating strong healthcare data security measures, physical safeguards serve as a primary line of defense from potential threats. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) defines...

Managing a health data breach with a response plan

by Patrick Ouellette

Some organizations say they’re going to improve security after an incident. David Dover, Privacy and Security Officer at Alere Inc., can attest that his organization did make the effort to...