Proposed HIPAA Rule to Enhance Criminal Background Check System
On January 7, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the HIPAA Privacy Rule expressly permitting certain covered entities to...
View ArticleHigh Number of HIPAA Mobile Device Breaches – Time to Use Safe Harbor Encryption
Most breaches of electronic protected health information (ePHI) reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have related to the theft or loss of unencrypted mobile devices. These...
View ArticleIncreased OIG Focus on Kwashiorkor Claims
In its recently released 2014 Work Plan, the OIG has announced that it will investigate hospital billing for Kwashiorkor. Kwashiorkor is a form of severe protein malnutrition that generally affects...
View ArticleSkagit County Agrees to Pay $215,000 for HIPAA Violations
On March 6, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) reached a $215,000 settlement with Skagit County in northwest Washington state for violations of the...
View ArticlePROTECT Act Seeks to Exclude Health IT Software from FDA Oversight
Last month, Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced proposed legislation, the PROTECT Act (Preventing Regulatory Overreach To Enhance Care Technology) of 2014 (full text...
View ArticleFDA Releases Report on Health IT Oversight
On April 3, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), in collaboration with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) and the Federal Communications...
View Article$4.8 Million HIPAA Settlement – Patient Data on the Web
On May 7, 2014, HHS announced that New York-Presbyterian Hospital (“NYP”) and Columbia University (“CU”) agreed to collectively pay $4.8 million in the largest HIPAA settlement to date. The...
View ArticleViolation of Privacy Rule Leads to $800,000 HIPAA Settlement
Indiana-based Parkview Health System (“Parkview”) has agreed to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) by paying $800,000 and adopting a...
View ArticleMeaningful Use Hardship Exception Deadline Extended to November 30, 2014
Still not able to meet meaningful use this year? CMS recently announced that it has reopened submission and extended the deadline for eligible professionals and eligible hospitals to submit a hardship...
View ArticleWashington House Bill Seeks to Prohibit Physician Noncompete Agreements
On January 14, 2015, House Bill 1173 (sponsored by Reps. Carlyle, Reykdal and Stanford) was introduced to prohibit noncompete agreements that restrict the right of physicians to practice in a...
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