If you think compliance with HIPAA is complex and expensive, non-compliance can turn out to be twice that. And Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) stands testimony to this fact. On March 13th 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that BCBST agreed to pay a sum of $1.5 million for…
According to the HITECH Breach Notification Rule any impermissible use or disclosure of protected health information (PHI), or “breach,” of 500 individuals or more should be reported to HHS and the media. Similarly, smaller breaches affecting less than 500 individuals have to be reported to the secretary on an annual basis. As the first enforcement…
While you may be striving to achieve ‘meaningful use’ status to qualify for the EHR incentives, some new requirements on privacy and security have surfaced as part of the proposed rule which defines how to achieve ‘meaningful use’ of electronic health records (EHR) to qualify for Stage 2 of the HITECH Act EHR incentive program.
Just when you may be thinking that your compliance and security needs are taken care of, here comes another thing to worry about: The HIPAA Compliance Audit Program. HIPAA Audits will be taken upon accordance with Section 13411 of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) to ensure that covered entities and their business associates are in compliance with the privacy and security rules of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Starting in 2011, all medical providers, including physicians, clinics, surgery centers and hospitals that can demonstrate “meaningful use” of health information systems in compliance with new government regulations, are eligible to recover $44,000 to $2.0 Million of their IT investment from the government. Alternately healthcare providers face civil penalties up to $50,000 for willful neglect…
Although occurring at varying degrees, data breaches are now more frequent than ever before. The TRICARE breach which is the largest ever since the HIPAA notification rule came into effect, has been in the news for quite some time now. Affecting 4.9 million beneficiaries of the military healthcare program, this breach attracted immediate and stringent legal action.
If you are a small business with less than 500 employees, you are likely to be a target for information thefts. Hackers are increasingly targeting small organizations, as they are easier prey due to inadequate security infrastructure. A recent mid-November (2011) Research by Symantec “shows that at least 40 percent of all targeted attacks aimed…
In yet another breach incident, Sutter Health, an integrated delivery system, reported theft of a desktop device during the weekend of Oct 15 and 16. Sutter Health was in the process of encrypting all desktop computers when one of the devices yet to be encrypted, was stolen from an administrative office of Sutter Medical Foundation,…
You may have been doing a lot to ensure information security and compliance in your organization. But that´s really not enough- because it´s now time to prove your compliance with security and breach notification rules, to the OCR audit team. The audit protocols were developed by KPMG under the $9 million contract which was announced…
With the long overdue HIPAA privacy and security compliance audit program scheduled to begin later this year or early next year, it’s time for every healthcare entity to do a reality check and find out if their privacy and security policies really work. Is your organization prepared for the upcoming HIPAA compliance audit? If yes,…
