Category Archives: In the news
HHS getting stricter at business process failures causing HIPAA violations
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made two announcements last month: 1. It had imposed a civil monetary penalty of $4.3 million on health insurer Cignet Health for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s privacy provisions. 2. The Massachusetts General Hospital had agreed to pay HHS a total of $1 million to … Continue reading
Official announcement made for the training of state attorney generals to file federal lawsuits
It was recently announced that training for state attorneys general on how to file a HIPAA federal civil lawsuit will be offered this spring. Thought the HITECH Act enabled state attorneys general to file the federal lawsuits, not many such actions have been taken apart from a few cases like the lawsuit filed by former … Continue reading
Is your sensitive medical data secured with your web application?
Big organizations often need web applications to handle and manage their medical information but with strict HIPAA compliance Rules, the healthcare providers need to ensure that they are entrusting their sensitive PHI data to vendors and partners who are as vigilant as they themselves are in protecting PHI. As such when choosing your web designer … Continue reading
Knowing about Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act
The regulation implementing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA) was published on November 21, 2008, and became effective on January 19, 2009. PSQIA establishes a voluntary reporting system to enhance the data available to assess and resolve patient safety and health care quality issues. To encourage the reporting and analysis of … Continue reading
Knowing about Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
HIPAA data encryption standards require health care providers, health insurance companies and business associates who transmit, store or access protected health information in electronic form to utilize a standardized level of data encryption. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) approved cryptographic algorithm used to protect electronic data and is quite … Continue reading
What are the HIPAA Notice Requirements?
HIPAA has various notice requirements as part of its regulatory scheme. The Department of Labor publishes a Compliance Assistance Guide that organizes the notice requirements in HIPAA into a chart, applicable as of October 2010. Various requirements under HIPAA Notice can be listed down as: HIPAA Certificate of Creditable Coverage The HIPAA certificate of creditable … Continue reading
SecureGRC SB™ from eGestalt to help small businesses with HIPAA & HITECH compliance
eGestalt is a provider of information technology governance, risk management and compliance (IT-GRC) solutions for small to mid-size organizations. eGestalt, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has offices in US, Asia-Pacific and Middle East., has announced the U.S. availability of SecureGRC SB™, a patent-pending Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (Saas) application that helps to meet HIPAA … Continue reading
Civil and Criminal penalties for HIPAA violations
The authorities have made it a point that a strict penalty is imposed on healthcare providers in case HIPAA laws are violated. When the personal health information of any patient is unlawfully transferred from one source to another, the law imposes both, criminal and civil penalties. The civil penalties for HIPAA violations include: The American … Continue reading
CMS to hold teleconferences on ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010 implementation
Last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had issued a reminder to health care providers, health plans, clearinghouses, and vendors about the approaching compliance dates for a new generation of diagnosis and procedure codes and updated standards for electronic health care transactions. It also stated that all entities covered under the Health … Continue reading
What are the advantages offered by HIPAA 5010?
HIPAA 5010 is the next step towards implementing Administrative Simplification between Healthcare Covered Entities. HIPAA 5010 paves the way for further standardization providing Trading Partners better communication and more efficient, less expensive business processes. In January 2009, CMS mandated conversion to HIPAA version 5010 by January 1, 2012. Generic enhancements made to all of the … Continue reading