by Eagle Editor | May 16, 2016 | General News, HIPAA
Spring 2015 brought a number of reports of HIPAA data breaches: Mercy Iowa – Data-Gathering Virus A malware infection resulted in the theft of 15,000 medical records from Mercy Iowa City and Mercy Clinics in Iowa City. In March 2016, Mercy Iowa had to...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 21, 2016 | General News, HIPAA
The HITECH Act, enacted by Congress in February 2009, mandated that the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enhance its enforcement efforts through the use of random HIPAA audits. OCR conducted a pilot audit program in which an audit protocol was created and 115 covered...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 21, 2016 | General News, HIPAA
Over the last 6 months the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has announced an average of a settlement or other enforcement action per month. While most affected organizations were hospital systems or national companies, one small organization also was included. Here is...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 21, 2016 | General News, Health Information Technology
Ransomware is a type of malware that quickly encrypts the files of the host computer system, rendering them unusable, and then displays a message demanding a ransom within a short period of time. If the ransom is paid, the victim may receive a decryption key to...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 21, 2016 | CMS Quality Payment Programs, General News
Yesterday, Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado), along with U.S. Representatives Renee Elmers, Tom Price, M.D., Bobby Rush and Ron Kind introduced the Flexibility in Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Act, which would shorten, in...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 20, 2016 | General News, HIPAA, HIPAA Policy Templates
Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic, PA. of North Carolina, a 22 physician practice, has agreed to pay $750,00 to settle charges that it potentially violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule by giving protected health information (PHI) for approximately 17,300 patients to a potential...
by Gary Pritts | Mar 26, 2016 | CMS Quality Payment Programs, General News
All physicians and other Eligible Providers (EPs), whether you have an EHR or not, whether you were successful with Meaningful Use or not, can apply for a hardship exception for the calendar year 2015. A one-year only, liberalized exception is available to all because...
by Eagle Editor | Mar 21, 2016 | CMS Quality Payment Programs, General News
Did you know that how you follow the Physician’s Quality Reporting System (PQRS) in 2016 will have a significant impact on your practice revenue in coming years? CMS has stated that failure to comply will cut your Medicare reimbursement by 2% starting in 2018....
by Eagle Editor | Feb 15, 2016 | General News, HIPAA
Lincare thought they were not liable because PHI was “stolen” by an individual who discovered it on the premises. They were wrong. HHS.gov is reporting that a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administrative Law Judge has ruled that Lincare, Inc....
by Eagle Editor | Jan 30, 2016 | General News, HIPAA, HIPAA Policy Templates
Risk analysis for business associates is one of the services offered by Eagle Consulting Partners. Effective March 25, 2013 Business Associates became directly regulated by the HIPAA regulations and are required to comply with the HIPAA regulations. One of the key...
