Safe & Sound with Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

HIPAA/HITECH , Standards, Regulations & Compliance

Regulators to Offer Updates at HIPAA Security Event

Key Leaders to Address the Latest Cybersecurity and Compliance Challenges
Regulators to Offer Updates at HIPAA Security Event

In the wake of recent mega-breaches, what does the current health data security and privacy landscape look like from the perspective of federal regulators?

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That's something that I hope to learn at the 8th annual "Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security" conference Sept. 2 and 3 in Washington, D.C.

The conference, to be co-hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights - which oversees HIPAA enforcement - has an impressive lineup of government and private-sector experts slated to discuss the latest cybersecurity trends and compliance challenges.

Presentations will cover a variety of timely topics, including updates on the HIPAA Omnibus final rule - which went into effect nearly two years ago, as well as breach management, business associate liability, managing third-party risk and securing medical devices.

Privacy advocate and attorney Deven McGraw, who joined OCR in late June as deputy director for health information privacy, is among the featured speakers I plan to interview. I'm hopeful that McGraw - and other OCR officials speaking at the event, including OCR Director Jocelyn Samuels - will clarify the agency's view of recent healthcare sector cyber-attacks, where the sector needs to batten down the hatches as well as plans for HIPAA enforcement activities, including the long overdue resumption of HIPAA compliance audits.

At the conference, I'm also planning to interview officials from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, NIST and the Food and Drug Administration, among others, about the latest security challenges.

One of the keynoters at the event is Cris Ewell, CISO at Seattle Children's Hospital, who will offer insights on building a robust data security plan. Ewell will also be a presenter at the upcoming Healthcare Information Security Summit being hosted by Information Security Media Group on Sept. 17 in San Francisco.

So be sure to check out my coverage of this important annual event, which will include interviews, news stories and blogs. And if you plan to attend the conference, I look forward to seeing you there.



About the Author

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

Executive Editor, HealthcareInfoSecurity, ISMG

McGee is executive editor of Information Security Media Group's HealthcareInfoSecurity.com media site. She has about 30 years of IT journalism experience, with a focus on healthcare information technology issues for more than 15 years. Before joining ISMG in 2012, she was a reporter at InformationWeek magazine and news site and played a lead role in the launch of InformationWeek's healthcare IT media site.




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