HIPAA
5 at hospital Fired For Social Media Use #HIPAA
A California hospital will fire five employees and discipline another because they posted personal discussions concerning hospital patients using social media.An ongoing investigation at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside “has not yet identified any evidence that patient names, photographs, or similar identifying information was posted by these employees,” according to a statement from Larry Anderson, [...]
One-fourth of reported HIPAA breaches involve laptops – FierceMobileHealthcare
Last year, the HHS Office for Civil Rights started posting online a list of reported breaches of unsecured health data affecting at least 500 people. About one-quarter of all listed incidents involved laptops, and close to one-eighth were the result of a lost or stolen portable device or USB drive. via One-fourth of reported HIPAA [...]
Patients Question HIPAA Provision That Allows Use Of Patient Data For Fundraising
The federal law known as HIPAA that is meant to protect the privacy of patients “specifically allows medical centers to use patient information for fundraising activities,” The Seattle Times reports. “Information about diagnosis or treatment is off-limits, but federal and state laws allow hospitals, in most cases, to use a patient's name, address, contact information, [...]
OCR Building HIPAA Audit Plan With Outside Help
HIPAA's privacy and security enforcer has hired an outside firm to help build its HITECH-required HIPAA auditing plan, the government agency tells HealthLeaders Media. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which carries out for the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) enforcement of the HIPAA privacy and security rules, says it does not have [...]
HHS Issues RFI on Accounting for Disclosures Through an EHR
On May 3, 2010, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services HHS issued a Request for Information RFI on the provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health HITECH Act that expand the requirements for accounting of disclosures of patients' protected health information PHI to [...]
OCR Boosting HIPAA Security Enforcement
The health care industry can soon expect a greater emphasis on enforcing the HIPAA security rule than in years past. That’s the message that Susan McAndrew, deputy director for privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, delivered May 11 at the Safeguarding Health Information conference in Washington. OCR sponsored [...]
Security Rule Draft Guidance
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for issuing periodic guidance on the provisions in the HIPAA Security Rule. (45 C.F.R. §§ 164.302 – 318.) This series of guidance documents will assist organizations in identifying and implementing the most effective and appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability [...]
OCR drafts guidelines for security risk analysis
The Health & Human Services Department published draft guidance to help healthcare providers and payers figure out what is expected of them in doing a risk analysis of their protected patient health information. via In the News.
Hospital fulfills subpoena, gets hit with privacy suit
The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio found itself in such a predicament when it agreed to turn over a patient’s records in response to a grand jury subpoena in a criminal investigation. The subpoena request was prompted by a criminal investigation of James Turk, a private investigator and former police officer who was indicted in June [...]
Health worker is first HIPAA privacy violator to get jail time
A former UCLA Health System employee, apparently disgruntled over an impending firing, has been sentenced to four months in federal prison after pleading guilty in January to illegally snooping into patient records, mainly those belonging to celebrities via Health worker is first HIPAA privacy violator to get jail time – SC Magazine US.
