Blog

Employee’s HIPAA Violation Results in $1.44 Million Jury Verdict Against Employer

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Last month, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a $1.44 million jury verdictagainst Walgreens and a pharmacist employed by Walgreens for breaching their duties to keep customer prescription history private. In this case, the pharmacist used private customer prescription history information for her own personal purposes. Ground-breaking opinion According to Indianapolis attorney Neal F. Eggeson Jr. […]

HIPAA “BYOD” Rule Changes: What You Need to Know

Friday, November 14, 2014

What is BYOD? BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) appears to be a win-win for companies andemployees: employers save money on smart phone, tablet and laptop costs and employees enjoy the freedom of choosing their own device while enhancing communications and mobile care collaboration. BYOD in the Medical Industry However, in the medical industry, BYOD […]

Transitional Compliance Period for Business Associate Agreements Ended on September 22, 2014

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

We’ve discussed businesses associates before and the need for hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers to have proper business associate agreements in place with third party vendors handling protected health information. In today’s post, we want to highlight the recent termination of a transitional compliance period, which ended on September 22, 2014. Extended […]

Unrest in Ferguson, Missouri Creates Disclosure Questions for Medical Professionals

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Media outlets reporting on situations involving unrest and injuries(such as the recent developments in Ferguson, Missouri) often ask hospitals and medical professionals to provide information about the individuals they are treating. However, medical professionals must ensure the patient’s rights are not violated in all of the chaos that likely surrounds that treatment. In this week’s […]

How to Dispose Protected Health Information

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Entities covered under the HIPAA Privacy Rules face very high penalties for failing to properly handle protected health information (PHI) as one Indiana non-profit health care system learned to the tune of $800,000. If you handle PHI there is a good chance the privacy rules apply to you and you must ensure your staff follows […]

HIPAA Security Risk Assessment Tool: An Easier Way to Assess HIPAA Vulnerabilities?

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

A new Security Risk Assessment tool is now available to help small and medium sized offices “conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information.”* The tool, released by the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), is intended to help […]

The $150,000 PHI Flash Drive

Friday, March 7, 2014

Imagine this, your health care employee loses a flash drive containing protected health information. You immediately inform the affected patients and the media as required under the breach notification rules of HIPAA and HITECH. You’re in the clear, right? Perhaps not, as one health care provider recently learned to the tune of $150,000. The […]