On June 12, 2017 the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report entitled Medicare Paid Hundreds of Millions in Electronic Health Record Incentive Payments That Did Not Comply With Federal Requirements (Report) which estimates that between May 2011 and June 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services … Continue Reading
We are seeing more healthcare data breaches occur, and our experience shows that the causes and severity of these breaches are changing, as well. For the second year in a row, the BakerHostetler Data Security Incident Response Report demonstrates that healthcare breaches continue to be the highest percentage of incidents that we handled in 2015. … Continue Reading
To combat new risks associated with rapidly evolving health information technology, HIPAA and HITECH provide standards for the privacy of protected health information (PHI), the security of electronic protected health information (ePHI) and breach notification to individuals. HITECH also requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to perform periodic audits of covered … Continue Reading
To start 2014, HHS OCR issued its first resolution agreement of the year and its first settlement with a county government—signaling that even local and county governments, regardless of size, must safeguard the privacy and security of patient information in compliance with HIPAA. Skagit County, Washington (County), located in northwest Washington with approximately 118,000 residents, … Continue Reading