Monthly Archives: September 2010
Is HIPAA Online Training the right option for you?
HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, offers security and privacy for safeguarding medical data of patients and with the Internet readily accessible from all households, more and more people are looking up for HIPAA Training online. Various websites dealing with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act offer easy HIPAA … Continue reading
How important it is to verify the HIPAA training of your medical answering service?
When you choose a medical answering service for your patients, you not only have to look for a professional and capable voice which can attend to your patient’s specific medical issues with care and professionalism, but also for a person who has gone through HIPAA training procedure. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act require … Continue reading
Allied Telesis-Hosted PACS Solutions partnership to offer a unique cloud-based PACS service
Allied Telesis Inc., a global provider of secure IP/Ethernet switching solutions and an industry leader in the deployment of converged multi-play networks, has entered into an alliance with Hosted PACS Solutions, an application service provider to managed cloud-based Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) services to enable the seamless and secure transfer and storage of … Continue reading
107 breaches on public list of OCR Posting II
As per the website of The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the months between September 22, 2009 and June, 2010 there were 107 publicly listed breaches affecting as many as 4,086,980 people. Six of the 107 breaches, or 5.6% of the total, affected 3,353,627 individuals, or 82% of the total. The breach list has been … Continue reading
First HIPAA prosecution in West Pennsylvania for illegal PHI disclosures
This is the first HIPAA prosecution in the Western District of Pennsylvania as a resident of Monroeville, Pa., was charged by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh for multiple illegal disclosures and use of patient individually identifiable health information for personal gain as announced by the United States Attorney David J. Hickton. The 14 count … Continue reading
The importance and scope of HL7 in the healthcare industry
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) encompasses a range of operational, training, policy and technical issues. Your expensive HIPAA solution is incomplete–and worse, non-compliant–if your core systems do not cater to HL7 (Health Level 7) when required. HL7 is a key component of HIS interoperability efforts and a significant standard in its own … Continue reading
Smith and Moore to plead guilty to health care fraud
Isaac Earl Smith, 38, and Annetra Poole-Moore, 37, have agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes involving health care fraud, disclosures prohibited by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and aggravated identify theft. Smith, of Pleasant Grove, and Moore, of Midfield, engaged in a criminal conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to … Continue reading
Crimes created by HIPAA but not specific to it
There are some crimes created by HIPAA but not specific to it. Some such crimes are: Health Care Fraud and Scheme (18 USC 1347): Prohibits knowing and willful actions or attempts to execute a scheme to defraud any health care benefit program or to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretense, representation, or promises, … Continue reading
The growing concern of data security breach on mobile devices
According to American Medical News in the February 22 edition of their newspaper, one-third of health professionals store patient data on laptops, smartphones and USB memory sticks and only 39% of health care organizations encrypt data on mobile devices. Mobile email represents yet another security headache for administrators with encrypted attachments crossing the firewall, making … Continue reading
Safety issues at risk with chat transcripts of sensitive medical information
Doctors and healthcare centers as well as pharmacists have started using chats these days to get closer to their customers. However, the preservation of these chat discussions of super-sensitive patient medical history may prove a very serious threat to that security. In the eyes of HIPAA and lawyers for consumers whose data may get accessed, … Continue reading