Search Results for: hipaa

You may be accustomed to hearing about the massive PHI breach instances that affect large healthcare systems, but they aren’t the only HIPAA violations that occur. In reality, small breaches take place every day often involving texts or emails that aren’t sent securely or that end up going to the wrong place. Communicating with patients[...]

You probably already know that HIPAA violations are rampant across the country, and that as much effort as you may put into encryption software and computer passwords, some protected health information (PHI) may still fall into the wrong hands. What you may not realize is that HIPAA violations can happen in some very unlikely places.[...]

Patient privacy may be at top of mind when you’re faxing and emailing medical records, but breaches can (and do) still occur every day. With 2023 in the rear-view mirror, it’s a good time to take a look at the HIPAA breaches that struck healthcare entities over the past 12 months. Check out three HIPAA[...]

Your medical practices is like any other business, in that it has an online presence — which means that sometimes, online reviews are posted, and they aren’t always positive. However, responding to online reviews, even if you feel you’re simply defending your practice, can land you in hot water if your response accidentally violates patient[...]

A review of the government’s most recent stats about healthcare data breaches reveals a bit of both good news and bad news. On the plus side, there have been fewer data breach attacks on US health care providers and systems so far in 2023. But the bad news is that when attackers strike, they breach[...]

Believe it or not, most HIPAA violations occur by accident, due to simple human errors—but that doesn’t mean they don’t qualify as violations. You could be fined if your practice lets a patient’s protected health information (PHI) fall into the wrong hands, whether your staff member did it deliberately or not. To reduce your practice’s[...]

When the pandemic first began impacting U.S. medical practices in 2020, many providers scrambled to get their telehealth systems up and running to meet the telehealth regulations. Today it’s a completely different landscape, with telehealth one of the norms in modern practices and many organizations declaring that telehealth is here to stay. Even as these[...]

When patients come to your practice, they expect their medical information to remain private, and it’s your job to make sure that happens. To stay on top of your HIPAA requirements, your best bet is to create ongoing, weekly and quarterly checklists that can help you remain on track with every responsibility. As a best[...]

Keeping your patients’ information private is one of the most important ways to stay compliant at your medical practice, and requires more than just signing off on forms. It requires vigilance and commitment, and that means you may need to perform a few ongoing tasks to stay on track with HIPAA compliance. As part two[...]

In 2021, HIPAA breaches exposed more than 45 million patient records to hackers and marked a new annual record for HIPAA-related information offenses. HIPAA data violations not only put sensitive patient information in the hands of nefarious actors, but they also open your practice up to serious fines and penalties. Even unintentional HIPAA breaches can[...]

When a patient asks for copies of their medical records, you are required to give them to them – even if they can’t afford to pay the standard fees you charge for duplication. Balancing a patient’s right to access their medical records with your desire to cover your costs for the extra time and effort[...]

Q: Recently, a police officer called our practice and asked our receptionist for a patient’s phone number. We previously saw the patient at the request of the Department of Transportation for a physical. Even though the caller ID indicated that the person on the phone was actually from the police department, our receptionist was unsure[...]

If your patient walks out the door without paying the amount they owe, your ability to collect decreases by 50%.  The good news is there are several online payment options available to you that can make paying easy for your patients, and reduce your risk of violating HIPAA compliant payment processing rules. Making a mistake[...]

Simple mistakes such as not controlling who in your office has access to patient information, can inadvertently result in patient complaints and costly HIPAA access control policy violation penalties. At the core of the HIPAA access control policy Privacy Rule is the “Minimum Necessary Requirement” which offers guidelines around how and when patient information can[...]

With the click of a button, any one of your patients can file a complaint against you for failure to grant them easy and timely access to their medical records. However, the complaint alone isn’t what you should be concerned about – it's what comes next. patient access to medical records Complaints about patient access[...]

Your obligation to protect patient privacy doesn’t end when your patient dies — It just gets more complicated. The tricky part is knowing who’s authorized to receive deceased patient medical records because mishandling them will create a financial nightmare for your practice. HIPAA Rule for Deceased Patient Medical Records The HIPAA Privacy Rule states that[...]

QUESTION: We received a postcard in the mail notifying us of a mandatory HIPAA compliance risk assessment from the Secretary of Compliance, HIPAA Compliance Division. What caused our practice to be scrutinized and how should we respond? Question from San Francisco, California subscriber ANSWER: Unfortunately – or fortunately, you have been the target of an[...]

As COVID-19 quickly spreads across the country, so will the requests for access to patient Protected Health Information (PHI).  These requests can come from a variety of sources (i.e. patients, health departments, government agencies, family members, guardians, etc.).  It is imperative that you have a firm handle on your obligations and your patients’ rights when[...]

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has agreed to pay $3 million for a potential HIPAA violations settlement. Master three takeaways so your practice doesn’t land on the same costly path. URMC in New York State which includes healthcare components such as the School of Medicine and Dentistry and Strong Memorial Hospital filed breach[...]

There’s a lot at stake if healthcare professionals don’t comply with HIPAA and other government regulations. No one knows this better than myself - a healthcare attorney. The relationship between healthcare attorneys and the practices we serve is a paradox. On the one hand, the healthcare attorney is viewed as the institution's life raft —[...]

A provider’s laptop is left in a taxi, a front desk sheet lists patients’ names, a practice’s website is hacked, all easy accidents that could happen to you. And how you respond to a HIPAA breach will play a major role in the penalty – if any - assigned. Be sure to follow these compliance[...]

Your network is behind a firewall. Your email is encrypted. You change your EHR passwords every three months. Think you’re safe from preventing HIPAA violations? Think again — and then take a good look in the mirror. Human factors are by far the biggest source of risk, experts say. In fact, more than half (59[...]

Just because you’re taking care of your obligations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), doesn’t mean that the vendors you work with are doing the same. So why should you care? Because if your vendors access your patients’ confidential information through your working relationship and have a breach of that data, you[...]

Beginning in August, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) launched a new initiative to investigate smaller breach reports — meaning those that affect fewer than 500 individuals, the agency announced Aug. 18. This effort is based on a series of recent case settlements where OCR investigated smaller breaches[...]