This could be a record year for HIPAA enforcement actions by federal regulators, both in the number of resolution agreements and in the size of financial settlements resulting from breach investigations, predicts privacy attorney Adam Greene.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights is making progress toward launching the long awaited next round of HIPAA compliance audits, which will consist mostly of desk audits. In a critical step, it plans to release its proposed new audit protocol in April, says Deven McGraw, OCR's deputy director of health information privacy.
Federal authorities have slapped a Los Angeles-based physical therapy provider with a financial penalty in a HIPAA case that provides a wake-up call about the requirement to obtain patients' permission before using their personal information for marketing purposes.
Federal regulators have issued new guidance to clarify scenarios where HIPAA privacy and security regulation might apply, including for mobile health applications and electronic data exchange. Why are some organizations still so confused?
The Obama administration's proposed fiscal 2017 budget yet again seeks additional funding for the long overdue HIPAA compliance audit program and a variety of other health data privacy and security efforts. But will Congress approve spending increases?
For only the second time, federal regulators have slapped a healthcare entity with a civil monetary penalty in a case involving egregious HIPAA violations. Find out why Lincare Inc. was fined after a privacy incident affecting just 278 patients.
Healthcare organizations face an ongoing compliance burden involving the protection
of sensitive patient data. The task of safeguarding data grows increasingly complex as
the organization's environment adapts to advancing threats and shifting technology
trends. Once simply in record rooms and on desktops, now...
Securing sensitive emails isn't just a best practice - it's often the law. Compliance with
regulations is a priority for healthcare, financial services and government organizations; it may
also need to be a priority for companies that work with these organizations or practice business
in specific...
Matching all the right records from multiple sources to the right patient has long been a challenge because of the lack of a widely used patient identifier. That's why the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives has launched a $1 million competition to help pinpoint a practical solution.
Proposed HIPAA Privacy Rule changes in pending federal legislation could lead to elimination of the requirement to de-identify patient data that's used for research purposes, raising questions about whether that data will be at a higher risk for breaches, warns data de-identification expert Khaled El Emam.
If federal regulators pull the plug on the HITECH Act's "meaningful use" incentive program for electronic health records, they must devise bold new ways to help ensure that data stored in EHR systems is secure.
A federal official's comments this week that the government is "ending" the HITECH Act's "meaningful use" incentive program for electronic health records is raising numerous questions, including what's next for health data privacy and security regulations.
In 2016, the healthcare sector faces a variety of complex legislative and regulatory issues, especially those tied to patient privacy, says attorney Kirk Nahra. For example, new rules could emerge covering the use of patient data in research.
To help remove perceived obstacles, federal regulators have issued new guidance on patients' rights under HIPAA to access their health records. Find out what the guidance says about the use of unencrypted email and other key issues.
A modification to the HIPAA Privacy Rule designed to help identify those who are prohibited, for specific mental health reasons, from having a firearm will have little impact on most healthcare providers because it's so narrow in scope.
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