Posts Tagged ‘Patient privacy’
HIPAA Enforcement tops $28M in 2018
If it seems as if HIPAA violations were in the news more often than ever last year, that may be because 2018 saw an all-time record year in HIPAA enforcement activity. There were 10 cases settled and one judgement secured by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human…
Read MoreHIPAA Violation Results in $4.3M Fine for Cancer Center
If you haven’t taken stringent measures to protect patient privacy, this recent ruling from a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administrative Law Judge might spur you into action. The ALJ ruled that University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center violated HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules and granted summary judgment to the Office for…
Read MoreNew Rule Makes it Easier to Share Substance Abuse Information While Protecting Privacy
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently finalized changes to federal regulations relating to the confidentiality of substance-use disorder patient records. Published in the Federal Register on January 18, the rule makes it easier to share the medical history of patients undergoing substance abuse treatment in federally funded drug and alcohol treatment programs,…
Read MoreUpdating HIPAA compliance in an age of data breaches
Recent data breaches at some of the country’s major healthcare organizations have prompted the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to update its 2011 version of its Guide to Privacy and Security of Electronic Health Information. The new guide, says the ONC, is specifically geared toward those providers who are “eligible professionals 
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