HIPAA news and information

About one in 20 participants in the federally funded electronic health-record incentive payment program can expect to be audited for compliance with meaningful use and other program criteria, a federal official said Monday.
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It's fashionable these days to call every cluster of U.S. Senators a gang.The Gang of Six. The Gang of Eight.
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Adventist Health System faces a class action lawsuit seeking damages for failure to safeguard the HIPAA-protected information of 763,000 patients at several of its hospitals in Florida.
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Here's a thought. When it comes to privacy and security, all patient information is equal. This isn't a new idea, of course.
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Every hospital and healthcare facility has some variation of this sign: “It's the law. Be careful not to discuss patients in public.” Like World War II posters warning that “Loose lips sink ships,” these notices stress that information falling into the wrong hands can lead...
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Before the release of the omnibus privacy rule earlier his year, or passage of the more stringent privacy provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or even the main federal health information privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, there...
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While Tuesday marks the effective date of a host of new federal privacy and security rules, including extending legal liability to business associates of healthcare providers and restoring a measure of patient control over disclosure of their records, compliance won't be required until six months...
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The top federal healthcare privacy and security regulator wants to know what officials from more than 100 organizations that have undergone privacy and security audits thought of the process and what can be done to improve it.
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Smaller healthcare providers, as well as many of the firms that work with all healthcare providers, are struggling to comply with federal data security rules that take effect soon. But even larger healthcare providers would do well to examine their contracts with the firms with which they deal, to...
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A Salem, Ore., hospital says it is reviewing the facts behind a decision not to inform police that a missing 81-year-old man was safe in the hospital while friends and police spent two days searching for him.
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