With contributions of a few mega healthcare data breaches in 2013, the number of individuals affected now is more than twice the number in 2012. While three recent breaches that grabbed the headlines have not yet been added to the official 2013 tally, once the number of affected individuals is confirmed, the breach tally for…
There has been enough and more said about the importance of encryption in safeguarding protected health information (PHI). But data breaches resulting due to lack of encryption continue to fill up the ‘wall of shame’, with the latest addition being a breach reported by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield. This incident involved the theft of…
Patient Health Information (PHI) is as important an asset as any other. Healthcare providers and business associates therefore have to ensure that they protect patient records as they would protect any other significant business asset. David Holtzman, a former senior official at an agency that enforces HIPAA, offered useful insights on safeguarding PHI as a…
Safeguarding patient health information has always remained one of the top priorities for healthcare. To further this interest, federal advisors have spelled out revisions to the HIPAA Accounting of Disclosures Rule. The Health IT Policy Committee has endorsed the recommendations put forth by its Privacy and Security Tiger Team in its meeting held on December…
The preliminary results of the ‘Meaningful Use’ audits conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have indicated that healthcare providers are having trouble substantiating their attestations, and are especially facing issues with documentation. Robert Anthony, deputy director of the Health IT Initiatives Group at CMS’ Office of e-Health Standards and Services, mentioned in…
In the keynote presentation at the HIMSS Privacy and Security Forum in Boston on 23rd September, the Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Leon Rodriguez addressed the areas of focus for the HIPAA enforcement actions to be undertaken by OCR, and gave specific perspective advice for organizations that are under the purview of…
The HIPAA breach notification rule came into effect in September 2009. According to federal authorities, in these four years, the ‘Wall of Shame’ has seen 674 major breaches that affected a total of 27 million individuals. Although the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been vigorously carrying out HIPAA…
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights had earlier announced that the audit program would resume in the fiscal year 2014. The latest update is that federal regulators are planning a permanent HIPAA audit program that would begin next year. According to the OCR Director Leon Rodriguez, the audits under the…
The HIPAA enforcement deadline is here, and healthcare entities have been busy finishing up compliance tasks. Over the past few weeks, many healthcare organizations were seen tackling one of the biggest compliance headaches- Updating business associate agreements-which is necessitated by the HIPAA Omnibus rule where business associates and their subcontractors are, for the first time,…
Every healthcare business is vulnerable, and therefore needs an effective means to deal with ever-growing threats and challenges. In an interview with Healthcare Info Security, Lee Kim, the Director of Privacy and Security at HIMSS discussed the issues faced by the healthcare industry and offered insights. “Keeping track of where sensitive data is located, detecting…
