While the wait continues for the Biden administration to name a new leader for the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, the HIPAA enforcement agency recently issued its 20th settlement to date in a case involving a patient "right of access" dispute.
The FTC warns makers of personal health records, mobile health apps, fitness devices and a variety of similar products and services that they will face stiff civil monetary penalties for failure to comply with the commission's 12-year-old - but never-yet enforced - Health Breach Notification Rule.
While a final rule for enforcement of the 21st Century Cures Act information blocking regulations is slated to be issued this month, some regulators are still uncertain that timeline will stick, or when other related unresolved details will be disclosed.
A proposed class action lawsuit against Flo Health alleges the fertility-tracking mobile app maker unlawfully shared sensitive consumer health data with Google, Facebook and other software vendors. The lawsuit comes after a recent settlement with the FTC over similar data-sharing privacy concerns.
The impact of Hurricane Ida, including huge power outages, points to the importance of healthcare organizations and others having comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place for natural disasters as well as cyber incidents.
The Department of Defense did not effectively control access to the health information of high-profile personnel, says a new watchdog agency report, which hints that the findings also may indicate ineffective access control over other DoD employees' health records.
Eskenazi Health, Brett Callow, Vice Society, Rob Bonta, Waikato District Health Board, HIPAA, ransomware, exfiltration, breach notification, David Holtzman, California, attorney general
The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking comments on how it can improve its security risk assessment tool, which is designed to help smaller organizations conduct assessments as required under HIPAA. Some critics have said the tool is too difficult to use.
Your data is leaking and it's at risk.
Data is a crucial and pervasive asset of any healthcare organization, but to safeguard your most
valuable information—as well as that of your patients—there needs to be a shift in the data security
strategy to protect what really matters: the data itself.
Your data is...
Two states have recently taken steps to bolster cybersecurity and data privacy protections. Connecticut has enacted a law designed to give certain legal protections to businesses that adhere to cybersecurity frameworks. And a new data privacy law in Colorado allows individuals to opt out of data collection.
With a goal of better matching the right patients to all the right medical records, federal regulators have issued new draft technical specifications for standardizing how patients' physical addresses are formatted and represented in health IT systems. But could the effort present new security and privacy risks?
You see the news: how many healthcare entities are struck by ransomware. But how many of them conducted business impact analyses before they were victims? Too few, says Cathie Brown of Clearwater. She discusses the value of doing a BIA before the crisis strikes.
The recent decision by a Massachusetts-based hospital to pay a ransom in exchange for promises by the attackers to destroy stolen data spotlights the difficult choices many healthcare entities face in the wake of cyberattacks.
In its 19th enforcement action involving a HIPAA "patient right of access" dispute, the Department of Health and Human Services has smacked a small medical practice with a financial fine and a supervised corrective action plan.
A federal $25,000 HIPAA settlement with a clinical laboratory is significant because it calls for a wide-ranging corrective action plan. And the enforcement action is unusual because it's the result of a compliance review of a covered entity not directly tied to the data breach that triggered the investigation.
Our website uses cookies. Cookies enable us to provide the best experience possible and help us understand how visitors use our website. By browsing govinfosecurity.com, you agree to our use of cookies.
