The Spirit of Holiday Giving, er, Penalties… The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) will be collecting a whopping $667,000 in administrative fines and penalties from six hospitals charged with privacy violations. The CDPH imposed penalties ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 on...
Just When You Think the Breach is Over, the Lawsuit Comes On November 16th, a class of plaintiffs sued AvMed for a massive breach that resulted in their personal information being put at risk. In December of 2009, unencrypted laptop computers were stolen from an AvMed facility in...
Another Kind of HIE — Health Insurance Exchanges & Recent NPRM The Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted in March 2010, requires states to establish Health Insurance Exchanges through which individuals and small businesses can purchase affordable insurance. Under the ACA, a state...
OPM May Delay Launch of Massive Fed Health Database In response to mounting privacy concerns, the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may delay the proposed November 15th launch date of its Health Claims Data Warehouse. In early October, the OPM’s notice in the Federal Register...
NCVHS Defines What Sensitive Info HIEs Should Sequester Prepared by Krystyna Nowik, Esq. The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) released an advisory letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on November 10 addressing recommendations for the...
ACLU Lawsuit Continues . . . Want Detailed Regulations Surrounding HIE Privacy The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) suit against the Rhode Island Department of Health (RI-DOH) remains in litigation, awaiting completion of discovery. The ACLU alleges that...
Drug and Alcohol Treatment Info “Ok” to Go Over the summer, the ONC and SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) held a session to discuss the application of the Substance Abuse Confidentiality Regulations to electronic health information exchange through HIOs...
“Psychotherapy Notes” may Come Out From the Drawer Currently, “psychotherapy notes” remains a very, very narrowly defined term under the Privacy Rule, and does not include general mental health information, including progress notes. The exact definition is: Psychotherapy notes means...
HHS Thinks Rite Aid Disposal Policies Are “In the Dumps” Prepared by Krystyna Nowik. In a recent settlement agreement, Rite Aid Corporation and its affiliated entities have agreed to shell out $1 million in order to settle potential HIPAA violations. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR)...
HIE Liability and Insurance Liability continues to be a central concern for HIEs and their stakeholders. In general, liability may arise from the acts or omissions of a party that fails to meet a responsibility or legal duty. Last year, I discovered an excellent resource that...
Oh where, Oh where has the Security Breach Rule gone? Today, I was going to draft a follow up article to my previous post to address whether notification was required under the Security Breach Notification Rule. However, when I sat down to begin typing, I discovered that the Breach Rule...
Aetna “forgets” file cabinet full of patient information A reminder to all covered entities out there that may be considering selling their business – don’t forget your file cabinet!! (or computers .. or disks … or seemingly “empty” boxes where PHI may be lurking.....well, you get the...
HIE Standard of Care — What You Don’t Join Can’t Hurt You.. or Could it? It should come as no surprise that many providers are still leery about joining a HIE due to concerns over becoming potentially exposed to new liabilities. Questions such as “Who owns the data” “How can I be...
The 800-Pound HIE Gorilla Tiger in “Meaningful Use” There has been a lot of discussion around the Meaningful Use (MU) criteria. CMS has an entire website dedicated to the subject, as does ONC. Although the clinical criteria of MU may garner much of the attention, the privacy and...
HIE-ho, HIE-ho, it’s off to Court ACLU Goes The Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health (RI-DOH) was sued last week in connection with RI-DOH’s proposed rules for implementing and enforcing the State’s health information exchange(HIE) under the Rhode Island Health Information...