Archive for the ‘HIPAA’ Category
Friday, August 30th, 2013
Over the past week a few reporters who were following up on a recent breach of 9 million patient records for stories they were writing asked me basically the same question amongst all their others, “What are the barriers that stop healthcare organizations from encrypting their devices?” One of the resulting stories, by Marianne McGee, has been posted at HealthCareInfosecurity. During my work with a wide range of small to large organizations, in a wide range of industries, I’ve found there are some common reasons why encryption is not implemented. Here are the top four I’ve run across. (more…)
Tags:awareness, BA, BAA, breach, business associate, CE, compliance, covered entity, data protection, encrypt, encryption, HIPAA, HITECH, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, midmarket, monitoring, non-compliance, Omnibus, personal information identifier, personal information item, PHI, PII, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy laws, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk assessment, risk management, security, social network, surveillance, systems security, training
Posted in HIPAA, Information Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 27th, 2013
The deadline for complying with the Omnibus Rule is quickly approaching. Psst…it’s September 23 for most covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs). I’ve been tardy in getting blog posts made because I’ve been happy to have the opportunity to help my hundreds of Compliance Helper and Privacy Professor clients to get into compliance with all the HIPAA and HITECH rules, many just getting there for the first time, in addition to the Omnibus Rule changes and new requirements. I’ve been getting a lot of HIPAA questions from many of the CEs and BAs. I thought it would be helpful to provide some of them on my blog. I’ll start with an interesting question about (more…)
Tags:awareness, BA, BAA, breach, business associate, CE, compliance, covered entity, data protection, HIPAA, HITECH, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, marketing, midmarket, monitoring, non-compliance, Omnibus, personal information identifier, personal information item, PHI, PII, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy laws, privacy practice, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk assessment, risk management, sales, security, social network, surveillance, systems security, training
Posted in BA, CE, HIPAA, Laws & Regulations | No Comments »
Friday, July 12th, 2013
Someone recently commented that I write a lot of blog posts based on my work and what my clients, students and others I meet at conferences and training classes have said or done. Well, that’s because such interactions often create some very good teaching moments that many others could benefit from! And so, yes, now I have another such experience to share. One of my new Compliance Helper clients recently told me, “I still don’t know what I need to do for HIPAA/HITECH compliance that is not covered under the compliance activities of my business clients. How can I do anything more beyond what they are already doing?” (more…)
Tags:awareness, BA, breach, business associate, CE, compliance, covered entity, data protection, HIPAA, HITECH, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, midmarket, monitoring, non-compliance, personal information, personal information identifier, personal information item, personally identifiable information, PHI, PII, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy laws, privacy practice, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, social network, SPI, surveillance, systems security, training
Posted in BA, BA and Vendor Management, CE, HIPAA, HITECH | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
I’ve been getting the following question and comment increasingly more often in the past several months:
1) “If someone’s name (more…)
Tags:awareness, breach, compliance, data protection, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, midmarket, monitoring, non-compliance, personal information, personal information identifier, personal information item, personally identifiable information, PHI, PII, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy laws, privacy practice, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, social network, SPI, surveillance, systems security, training
Posted in HIPAA, privacy, Privacy and Compliance | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 17th, 2013
“We Can’t Afford Security and Privacy!”
Recently I was speaking to a healthcare executive (a hospital Chief Financial Officer) at a conference where I had talked in one of the sessions about the needs for information security and privacy not only for compliance reasons, but also to mitigate risks to the business. He seemed a bit short with me when he approached.
Him: “I wish (more…)
Tags:audit, awareness, BAs, breach, budget, business associates, CEs, compliance, covered entities, customer service, data protection, employees, employment, exception management, HHS, HIPAA, hiring, HITECH, HR, human resources, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, job applicants, midmarket, monitoring, non-compliance, OCR, Omnibus Rule, personal information, personally identifiable information, personnel, PHI, PII, policies, policy exception, policy management, privacy, privacy breach, privacy laws, privacy practice, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, social network, SPI, subcontractors, surveillance, systems security, third parties, training, vendor management, vendors, walk through
Posted in HIPAA, Information Security, Laws & Regulations, Privacy and Compliance | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 29th, 2013
I’m getting a lot of déjà vu vibes lately with the old-ish Bruce Willis movie with the catch phrase “I see dead people.” (Remember that?) Only my twist on this phrase for the past few years is, “I see business associates.” A big problem is that (more…)
Tags:audit, awareness, BAs, breach, business associates, CEs, compliance, covered entities, customer service, data protection, employees, employment, exception management, HHS, HIPAA, hiring, HITECH, HR, human resources, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, job applicants, midmarket, monitoring, non-compliance, OCR, Omnibus Rule, personal information, personally identifiable information, personnel, PHI, PII, policies, policy exception, policy management, privacy, privacy breach, privacy laws, privacy practice, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, social network, SPI, subcontractors, surveillance, systems security, third parties, training, vendor management, vendors, walk through
Posted in BA, BA and Vendor Management, HIPAA | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013
Don’t tell me it depends! Well, sorry, but…
I’ve been involved in several interesting discussions (some with lawyers, some with security folks, some with privacy folks, and a few of the folks wearing all three hats) about the liability of organizations that outsource business processing. Since January 17 I’ve also been working on a wide range of documentation changes to reflect the recently released 563 page tome that is the Final HIPAA Omnibus Rule. A significant part of the documentation and writing involves discussion of the increased liability a covered entity (CE) now has for the bad practices and mistakes made by their business associates (BAs).
Organizations want a clear cut answer to “how liable” they are for the actions of their outsourced entities. One CISO at a conference demanded, “Just tell me; are we going to be held responsible for the actions of our business associates or not? Just (more…)
Tags:audit, awareness, BA, BA Agreement, BA contract, breach, business associate, compliance, customers, data protection, e-mail, electronic mail, email, employees, employment, exception management, HIPAA, hiring, HITECH, HR, human resources, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, job applicants, laws, liability, messaging, midmarket, non-compliance, Omnibus Rule, patients, personal information, personally identifiable information, personnel, PII, policies, policy exception, policy management, privacy, privacy breach, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, SPI, systems security, training, vendor management, vendor oversight, walk through
Posted in BA, BA and Vendor Management, CE, HIPAA, HITECH, Information Security, Laws & Regulations | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Are you a covered entity (CE) or business associate (BA) as defined by HIPAA? There are literally millions of organizations in the U.S. that fall under these definitions, and possibly additional millions of BAs outside of the U.S. providing services to U.S.-based CEs. The impact is significant, and truly world-wide. If you are a CE or BA, did you know that your information security and privacy activities, or lack thereof, could cause physical harm to patients and insureds, and that you can receive significant penalties under the new HIPAA rules based upon those impacts? (more…)
Tags:audit, awareness, BA, BA Agreement, BA contract, breach, breach harm, breach response, business associate, compliance, contracted workers, customers, data protection, due diligence, e-mail, electronic mail, email, employees, employment, Final Rule, HIPAA, hiring, HITECH, HR, human resources, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, job applicants, laws, liability, Mega Rule, messaging, midmarket, non-compliance, Obmnibus, outsource, oversight, patients, personal information, personally identifiable information, personnel, physical harm, PII, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy professor, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, right to audit, risk, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, SPI, systems security, training, walk through
Posted in BA, CE, HIPAA, HITECH | No Comments »
Thursday, January 24th, 2013
The final HIPAA “mega rule” is going to be officially published on the Federal Register tomorrow, January 25, 2013. Currently the version available (https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2013-01073.pdf) is “pre-publication” version.
Over the past week I’ve had numerous CEs and BAs contacting me, frantic to change their BA Agreements to “avoid complying with the Mega Rule for another year!” Wait, folks. You are misunderstanding; this is a very specific extension that only applies to the BA Agreements. Let me explain… (more…)
Tags:BA, BA Agreement, business associate, compliance, Compliance Helper, covered entity, federal register, Final Rule, healthcare, herold, HHS, HIPAA, HITECH, Information Security, Mega Rule, OCR, privacy, privacy professor, Rebecca Herold, security
Posted in BA, CE, HIPAA, HITECH | No Comments »
Friday, December 21st, 2012
This week I spoke with a small (~25 employees) organization (a business associate providing services to healthcare providers) that contacted me looking for help; they had purchased a whiz-bang “HIPAA compliance GRC” solution that included with everything else information security policies, but they couldn’t make any sense of the policies they were given or how they related to the rest of the expensive GRC tool. Grrr!! There are (more…)
Tags:audit, audits, awareness, BA, breach, business associate, business partner, CE, compliance, covered entity, customers, data protection, e-mail, electronic mail, email, employees, employment, HIPAA, hiring, HITECH, HR, human resources, IBM, Information Security, information technology, infosec, IT security, job applicants, laws, messaging, midmarket, non-compliance, patients, personal information, personally identifiable information, personnel, PII, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy professor, privacyprof, procedures, Rebecca Herold, risk, risk assessment, risk management, security, sensitive personal information, SPI, systems security, training, walk through
Posted in BA, CE, HIPAA, Information Security | 1 Comment »
