Image by purpleslog via Flickr By Mary Mosquera Last year’s HITECH Act toughened the rules and enforcement penalties health information handlers must follow to protect patient privacy. Under the new policy regime, providers will have to pay more attention to the confidentiality and safety of patient information as they move more of their operations toward […]
by Marcia Savage The health care industry was buzzing with the news: For the first time ever, a hospital was being audited for compliance with HIPAA security requirements. The audit of Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general in 2007 was surprising for hospitals, health insurers and […]
Image via Wikipedia The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO—The medical records of more than 4,000 patients at the University of California, San Francisco may have been compromised after a laptop they were on was stolen. Officials with the university said Wednesday the laptop was recovered earlier this month after it was taken from a medical school […]
Image via Wikipedia By Erin Allday, SF Chronicle Hackers may have had access to personal information for about 600 UCSF patients as a result of an Internet “phishing” scam, campus officials said Tuesday. The security breach occurred in September when a faculty physician in the UCSF School of Medicine provided a user name and password […]
Image via Wikipedia Here we have another unnecessary major security breach in a large healthcare organization which resulted in a loss of patient data demonstrating poor baseline security. They clearly are not ready for the new HIPAA provision ARRA and HITECH. Review my threats page and evaluate your current business and system risks to make […]
Another stolen laptop puts thousands of people’s personal data at risk but this time it’s the caregivers — not the patients — who are at risk. November 6, 2009 By Larry Barrett: More than 10,000 physicians’ and dentists’ personal data was exposed last week in New Hampshire after an employee at Anthem Blue Cross and […]
Healthcare Organizations May Not Be Prepared for HITECH and Other Security Challenges HIMSS News The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society releases its 2nd Annual Security Survey, sponsored by Symantec CHICAGO (November 3, 2009) – With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act underway, healthcare organizations face new challenges to maintain privacy and security of patient […]
How ARRA and HITECH provisions affect HIPAA compliance AIS reported taht the new HITECH Act requires hospitals, providers, health plans and other HIPAA covered entities (CEs) to meet a February 2010 deadline for revising their business associate (BA) agreements. New language in BA amendments should require BAs to comply with (a) the HIPAA Security Rule,(b) […]
