Would ‘Medicare for All’ help secure health data?

DISCLAIMER: This post is not partisan, but rather focuses on risk assessment based on history and what threats we are facing in the future. We do not endorse any healthcare plan style in any way, outside of examining its data security risk. For many folks, the term ‘Healthcare for All’ brings up ...

A huge applause from the NIST-OCR-HIPAA 2015 conference

It looked like the 8th annual conference may have garnered record-breaking attendance as I noticed hotel staff rushing to add skirted tables and chairs to the back of the room to accommodate a standing-room-only crowd. I guess that was to be expected given the star-studded line-up of presenters...

Final HITECH Act Stage 3 Meaningful Use Rules May Require Annual Risk Analysis plus a Risk Management Component

The comments are in and the HHS is scrambling to review them all before they issue the final Stage 3 Meaningful Use rules later this summer. Comments from entities such as CHIME and HIMSS represent good news and bad news for healthcare providers, depending on how you look at it. The HIPAA Securit...

What you need to know from the OCR’s Report to Congress on Breaches and HIPAA Rules Compliance

Last week the HHS Office for Civil Rights OCR issued their Annual Report to Congress on Breaches of Unsecured Protected Health Information PHI for calendar years 2011 and 2012. This is their second annual report required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health HITECH...

Long-awaited HIPAA Omnibus Rule is Unveiled

As of January 17, 2013, the HIPAA Omnibus Rule has finally been released by the Department of Health and Human Services HHS, which will modify the HIPAA privacy, security, and enforcement rules. The package of regulations, in regard to this long-overdue HIPAA Omnibus Rule, will officially be post...

Small Breach, Big Settlement

Earlier this week the Department of Health and Human Services HHS announced the first ever breach settlement where fewer than 500 patient records were compromised. The $50,000 settlement was issued as a result of 441 patient records being stored on an unencrypted laptop that was stolen from the...

Massachusetts Hospital Agrees to Pay $1.5m After Stolen Laptop HIPAA Violation

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, a Boston-based hospital, agreed to pay $1.5 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HSS earlier this week, settling a HIPAA violation stemming from a 2010 incident. The agreement acknowledges that the hospital failed to comply with...

BlueCross BlueShield to Pay $1.5m for HIPAA Violation

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee agreed to pony up $1.5 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HHS for a HIPAA violation in 2009, according to a ComputerWorld report. This payment is the settlement of a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act...

UCLA Health Services Pays $865K, Settles HIPAA Violations

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HHS this week announced that the University of California at Los Angeles Health Services UCLAHS has agreed to pay a $865,000 fine and pledged to tweak their infrastructure after potentially breaking the Health Insurance Portability and Accountabili...

Health Care Breach Notification Mandated

From SC Magazine Angela Moscaritolo Two new rules were created this week requiring health care organizations, and other entities that interact with personal health records PHRs, to issue notifications in the event of a data breach. The key rule, issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health a...