The latest HIPAA buzz is about things like Interoperability, Data Governance, Patient Access Rights, and, of course, OCR random audits. Donna attended HIMSS and the National HIPAA Summit recently. In this episode we discuss what kinds of things are happening in the industry relating to HIPAA.
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So far in 2016, we have seen four HIPAA enforcement cases resolved by OCR. One involved only the second Civil Money Penalty ever assessed. The three others were resolution agreements. Add those cases to what was done in 2015 and you have the most active 12 month period of HIPAA enforcement ever. Certainly, the first quarter of 2016 has been the most active quarter ever when it comes to HIPAA enforcement announcements.
In this episode we discuss the cases resolved so far in 2016 and more thoughts on what is coming up for 2016.
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Many times people ask: Why do we need HIPAA? Is HIPAA really necessary? The short answer is yes, we do need HIPAA and the reason is without it there is no baseline for protecting patient privacy.
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Social media can be the source of many issues if you don't have a clear policy for use. HIPAA social media policies requires some serious thought and commitment from your management staff. What things are good use of social media and what things should be avoided through policy enforcement?
Read more about HIPAA Social Media Policies at our website: helpmewithhipaa.com/44
It is clear that HIPAA disaster recovery and business continuity plans should include some level of ransomware response planning after the attack that shut down Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. What kinds of issues should you expect and how can you mitigate the damage from a ransomware attack?
Read more about our ransomware attack planning discussion on our website at helpmewithhipaa.com/43
To be certain you are protecting the health information in your organization you must identify where it lives and moves about around the network and workforce. A risk analysis can't be done properly without making that list first.
Where should you look for PHI? If you don't store it do you store access TO it? Get more information for this podcast at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/42
Trust but verify is the new standard when it comes to Business Associate relationships today. Yes, they must sign a BAA but you really need to ask some questions to confirm those BAs understand and are doing the things they have agreed to do for you.
Covered Entities (CEs) haven't really worried about the details of the contracts too much as along as the vendors would sign them. Many vendors have signed, and continue to sign, BAAs without any concerns at all for what the contract actually says they are going to do in their business. For so many years a BAA was just something you had to sign in order to do the work in healthcare. It didn't matter at all if you did anything with it other than put it in the file with other ones you had signed. The new world of HIPAA compliance, huge data breaches, and civil fines and penalties means neither side of the contract can function that way any longer. It is imperative that HIPAA compliant vendors are vetted in some manner to confirm you really are protecting your patients, clients, business, and reputation.
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