The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued their interim final rule for breach notification standards on August 19. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued their final rule of breach notification standards on August 17. The HHS rule covers all healthcare covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs). The FTC rule covers all personal health record (PHR) vendors and their service providers…
Posts Tagged ‘awareness and training’
HHS & FTC Breach Notice Rules: First Time NIST Standards Specifically Referenced
Monday, August 31st, 2009Fired Because Photo of Surgery Room Was A “HIPAA Violation”
Friday, August 28th, 2009I received a very interesting question yesterday, and I wanted to share it and my response here because it is a great HIPAA topic to discuss that I have not seen written about before. I’ve removed the identifying information, and modified the situation details enough so that this cannot be tied to the actual situation…
8,918 HIPAA Violation Investigations Have Required Corrective Actions
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009Here are some important websites to bookmark for you to reference when you need help…beyond what I have on my blog and at my website :)…if you are a US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Covered Entity (CE) or Business Associate (BA)…
HIPAA/HITECH Breach Notice Rule: Applies To PHI of Deceased Individuals + Training A Key Element
Monday, August 24th, 2009After a few days unable to make time to post to the blog, or technical difficulties preventing me when I did make time, I’m happy to resume my posting!
Today I want to offer a few thoughts about the breach notice rules that were released last week by the HHS and the FTC in compliance with the HITECH Act requirements…
Hidden Privacy & Security Risks of Web 2.0
Monday, August 10th, 2009There’s been a lot in the news lately about “Web 2.0” security and privacy problems. A lot of folks, though, don’t know what that term really means. Do your personnel know what it means? Probably not. This is certainly understandable since Web 2.0 really is a reference to many different things. The common link is that Web 2.0 represents what is considered to be the “second generation” of Internet activities and tools…
You Need These Things When You Get HIPAA Audited!
Friday, August 7th, 2009I get a bit irritated when I see a vendor touting their “compliance solution” products as making organizations “HIPAA Compliant” or “PCI DSS Compliant” or whatever your regulation of choice happens to be, and then, upon inspection of their products, see that they are just taking something they already had, slapping some marketing language into the description, picking a few of the regulatory requirements that their product may do (fully or partially) and then calling it a “compliance solution.”
OCR Adding To Staff For Increased HIPAA Compliance Enforcement Activities
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009Monday the HHS announced they were moving responsibility for both HIPAA Security Rule and Privacy Rule under the OCR.
That same day they also announced they were expanding the HIPAA “privacy enforcement team.” (Scroll down on this page to see the full verbiage of the announcement.)
HIPAA Enforcement Will Improve With OCR Responsible for Both Privacy Rule & Security Rule
Monday, August 3rd, 2009Today the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the OCR will now be responsible for both the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Security Rule.
Perhaps this is an indicator of more enforcement to come. As a quick review…
(Lack Of) Encryption Is A Basis For Notification Under The HITECH Act
Friday, July 31st, 2009This week one of my tweeps asked me the following: “What’s your interpretation of encryption obligations for PHI data-at-rest under HITECH? Many parties are sweating this now.” Great question!
Is This A Breach Under The HITECH Act Definition?
Monday, July 27th, 2009This week I want to take a closer look at some of the issues and requirements within the HITECH Act, which dramatically expands the reach and requirements under the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)…
