Med Students Violating HIPAA by Tracking Patients on EHRs
Medical students are using hospital electronic health records to track former patients, even though by doing so they are potentially violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act...
View ArticleFTC Reverses ALJ Decision on LabMD Data Security Case
Last year, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) dismissed a data security case filed against the medical testing laboratory LabMD Inc., by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). On Friday last week, the FTC...
View ArticleClik here to view.
OCR Warns of Threat of Insider Data Breaches
Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations have increased significantly in recent months. According to research conducted by the Ponemon Institute, criminal activity is now the leading cause of...
View ArticlePotential 2,000 Record PHI Breach Reported by California Physician
Brian D. Halevie-Goldman M.D. has notified 2,000 patients that some of their protected health information has been exposed – and potentially accessed – by unauthorized individuals. The data – which...
View ArticleHacker Steals PHI of 23,000 Patients of Prosthetic and Orthotic Care
Prosthetic and Orthotic Care (POC), an independent prosthetics and orthotics company serving disabled individuals in Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri, has discovered that an unauthorized...
View ArticleBA Error Exposes PHI of Patients for Four Months
An error by a business associate of Carle Health System has resulted in the protected health information of 1,185 patients being made accessible to unauthorized individuals. The error occurred on...
View ArticleKaren DeSalvo Leaves ONC: Vindell Washington Takes Over
For the past two years, Karen DeSalvo has served as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). That...
View ArticleWalgreens Improper PHI Dumping Case Closed by OCR After 9 Years
Ten years ago, WTHR 13 conducted an investigation into the improper disposal of sensitive information by pharmacies. The investigation was conducted following a robbery that took place at the home of...
View ArticleCMS Cracks Down on Social Media Abuse of Nursing Home Residents
A significant number of cases of abuse of nursing home and assisted living center residents have come to light in recent months. The cases involved the taking of degrading and demeaning photographs and...
View ArticleHITRUST CyberAid Cybersecurity Initiative Trialed in North Texas on Small...
Large healthcare organizations have the budgets and resources for complex cybersecurity solutions to prevent intrusions and keep the protected health information of patients secure. However, smaller...
View ArticleRotech Healthcare Reports 967-Record PHI Breach
The protected health information of 967 patients of Orlando, FL-based Rotech Healthcare Inc., has been discovered in the residence of third party who is unauthorized to have the information. Rotech...
View Article8.8 Million Healthcare Records Breached in August
August was a bad month for healthcare data breaches. More than 8.8 million patient and health plan member records were exposed or stolen. 8,804,608 to be precise. According to the latest installment of...
View ArticleCalifornia Anesthetist Alerts Patients to Improper Disposal of PHI
An anesthetist based in Los Baros, California has notified a number of his patients that some of their protected health information was accidentally disposed of in regular trash containers. Billing...
View ArticleImproving Healthcare Cybersecurity: HIMSS Suggests Information Sharing is Key
Healthcare organizations are committing more funding to cybersecurity and are improving their defenses against cyberattacks, although there is still a long way to go before cybersecurity defenses reach...
View ArticleHealthcare Cybersecurity Knowledge Gaps Placing ePHI at Risk of Exposure
A recent report issued by Wombat Security, a provider of security awareness and training software, suggests healthcare employees have gaps in their cybersecurity knowledge which could pose a serious...
View ArticleAction Taken Against Healthcare Employees for Fraud and Privacy Breaches
Earlier this month, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that four former nursing home aides had been arrested and charged with felonies and misdemeanors relating to the taking of...
View ArticleSurgeon General Warns Employees of Personal Information Breach
Another federal agency has experienced a breach of personal information, this time, the data of current, former, and retired members of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps has...
View ArticleBoxes of Abandoned Veterans Services’ Files Discovered
The Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS) has launched an investigation following the discovery of 20-30 boxes of files in an abandoned storage unit. The files contain a range of documents...
View ArticleMajority of Healthcare Vendors Not Ready to Comply with the HITRUST Data...
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights has stepped up HIPAA enforcement activities in recent years and oversight of covered entities is improving. One area of...
View ArticleStudy Highlights Risk of PHI Exposure from Healthcare Pagers
Many healthcare providers have now transitioned from pagers to more secure forms of communication. Secure text messaging platforms allow protected health information to be shared quickly and...
View Article