According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR), healthcare entities are estimated to spend 3.28 million hours to comply with the modified HIPAA Omnibus rule. As per a notice published in the Federal Register, out of these 3.28 million hours, nearly 30.655 hours would involve the dissemination and acknowledgement…
No organization can afford to take the risk of inadequate data protection. Protecting sensitive data should be a top priority for businesses, because a data breach can not only turn out to be very expensive, but can also result in embarrassment and additional scrutiny. So it is important to take a proactive approach to prevent…
The HIPAA omnibus enforcement deadline of September 23rd is fast approaching, and with less than two months left, it’s time for covered entities and business associates to spruce up compliance efforts and tick-off tasks in the to-do list. Although the primary focus should be on updating security and privacy policies and procedures to meet the…
With the ‘Wall of Shame’ having a fewer number of breaches added in the past month, and the breaches of 2013 so far being much smaller than the alarming numbers of the past year, there was a sense of mild relief felt in the healthcare sector. But cases that have surfaced during the last few…
Stolen or lost unencrypted devices have always posed a significant threat to healthcare entities throughout the United States for quite some time now. And a new breach report by the California Attorney General’s office confirms an ongoing problem. Unencrypted data has been identified as the major culprit in 131 breaches that has affected 2.5 million…
Protected health information of nearly 277,000 patients at Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth has been compromised after several hospital microfilms, which were supposed to be destroyed, were found in three different public locations. While the patients are being notified about this data breach, it is believed that information including patient names, addresses, dates of…
Conducting ongoing risk assessment is the key to tackling the upcoming HIPAA audits. Verne Rinker, a Health Information Privacy Specialist of the HHS Office of Civil Rights, in an interview with Information Security Media Group, revealed that out of the 115 entities audited during the pilot program last year, two-thirds had either non-existent or inaccurate…
It is a known fact that cyber attacks are continuing to grow in number each year and becoming more sophisticated than anyone could have imagined. But the more alarming fact is that these attacks are now a greater threat to countries worldwide than physical attacks. The Global Advanced Threat Landscape Survey conducted by Cyber Ark…
With the HIPAA Omnibus rule compliance deadline set for September 23rd this year, it’s time to accelerate compliance and security measures and make sure you leave no avenue for a breach. Industry experts and law firms have been providing valuable insights into the final rule and have been suggesting best practices for covered entities since…
A commonly seen problem across healthcare entities of all sizes is underfunding of security programs. Healthcare providers around the country face financial difficulties, as a result of which, they’re finding it hard to meet security requirements and compliance deadlines. Troy Regional Medical Center, a 97-bed healthcare facility in South Troy, Alabama is going through a…
