by Gary Pritts | Jun 5, 2012 | HIPAA
The HITECH Act extended HIPAA enforcement authority to State Attorney Generals. As part of a cooperative enforcement effort, last year the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) provided all expense paid training to the staff of the AGs. Yesterday, OCR posted the contents...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 19, 2012 | HIPAA
Phoenix Cardiac Surgery, PC, a small physician practice, settled a HIPAA privacy and security complaint for $100,000 and agreed to a Corrective Action Plan. The settlement agreement (in which the practice does not admit liability) is the culmination of an...
by Gary Pritts | Apr 11, 2012 | HIPAA
In this latest installment about risk analysis we continue the difficult quest to quantify risk of data breach. Hospitals and physician practices are conducting computer security risk analyses for HIPAA compliance and for meaningful use (per HIPAA Security 45 CFR...
by Gary Pritts | Mar 31, 2012 | HIPAA
Hospitals and physician practices conducting computer security risk analyses for HIPAA compliance and for meaningful use (per HIPAA Security 45 CFR 164.308(a)(1)) must assess the threats and likelihood of occurrence. Because most breaches are never reported, accurate...
by Gary Pritts | Mar 27, 2012 | CMS Quality Payment Programs
OK, Dick Cheney wasn’t president but was a heartbeat away. Both Dick Cheney and another former leader, Bill Clinton, have been in the news recently as a result of their heart conditions. Their previous histories of heart treatments have been widely reported in...
by Gary Pritts | Mar 8, 2012 | HIPAA
HIPAA Covered entities, including hospitals and physicians who are implementing electronic records with hopes of attaining Meaningful Use and qualifying for federal incentives, are performing a computer security risk analysis, or risk assessment. Conducting regular...
by Gary Pritts | Mar 2, 2012 | HIPAA
(Editor’s note, December 2015: while the information in this post remains relevant, 2015 could be called the year of the health care breach. During 2015 alone, approximately 1 out of every 3 Americans had some of their health care data stolen. New threats and...
by Gary Pritts | Feb 29, 2012 | HIPAA
Virtually everyone has a home wi-fi network. It provides convenient access for laptops, smartphones, tablets and gaming devices. How do you protect yourself? Administration Account. The first step is to secure the administration account for your wireless router or...
by Gary Pritts | Feb 24, 2012 | CMS Quality Payment Programs
5/23/2018 Editor’s Note: In April 2018, the Meaningful Use rules program has been renamed “Promoting Interoperability”. Nonetheless, the language of this requirement are unchanged and this post remains relevant in 2018. The Meaningful Use rules,...
by Gary Pritts | Feb 23, 2012 | HIPAA, HIPAA Policy Templates
Last month Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed suit against Accretive Health, Inc., a company which provides revenue cycle management services for two Minnesota Health Systems – Fairview Health Services and North Memorial Health Care. According to the...
