Compliance News - page 16

HIPAA Business Associate Breach Triggers Class Action Lawsuit

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Los Angeles County and a vendor that handles patient billing and payment collections for the county's departments of health services and public health in the wake of a breach last month affecting 168,500 individuals. The breach was the result of a Feb. 5 theft of eight unencrypted desktop computers from the Torrance, Calif. office of Sutherland Healthcare Services, the billing and collections business. Class Action Suit Filed in L.A. Breach, Seeking Damages in Wake of Computer Theft Incident, By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, March 19, 2014. Follow Marianne @HealthInfoSec

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Posted March 19, 2014 by Jack Anderson

Monitor Business Associates Compliance

Law firm recommends that covered entitiesand business associates "investigate subcontractors' data protection practices, including by way of reviewing third party audit reports and written data security policies where available". Interestingly this is not a HIPAA issue, yet but the FTC despite the fact that it is a healthcare transcripton company that caused the breach.

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Posted March 3, 2014 by Jack Anderson

HIPAA Businees Associate Agreements and Omnibus Rule

The HIPAA Omnibus Rule has created a new dialogue about HIPAA business associate agreements. Business associates need to be very careful about signing business associate agreements as covered entities and business associates are trying to shift liability to their business associates or sub-contractors.

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Posted March 3, 2014 by Jack Anderson

HIPAA Business Associate Audits

HHS will be starting HIPAA business associate audits in 2014, but the most likely source of an audit is a covered entity or business associate seeking "satisfactory assurances that you are HIPAA compliant.

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Posted March 2, 2014 by Jack Anderson

Beware the "HIPAA Compliant" Claim

The FTC’s complaint alleges that GMR held itself out as a “HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription Service” and overpromised customers “You can be assured that the materials going through our system are highly secure and are never divulged to anyone.” Beware the self described "HIPAA Compliant" company. You need proof of on-going HIPAA compliance from a trusted third party such as Complianc Helper and their Compliance Meter(tm).

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Posted February 17, 2014 by Jack Anderson

HIPAA and Health Insurance Carriers

Health insurance carriers must drive HIPAA compliance. General agents and producers are waiting for a signal that they must be able to prove compliance to their carriers. This means doing more than amending business associate agreements.

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Posted February 13, 2014 by Jack Anderson

HIPAA for Insurance Producers

The HIPAA Omnibus Rule has changed the requirements for insurance producers and Compliance Helper has responded with a special program to help them get compliant, stay compliant, and prove compliance with our Compliance Meter(tm).

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Posted February 10, 2014 by Jack Anderson

FTC Has Authority in Addition to HIPAA HITECH

In a recent ruling the FTC maintained its right to enforce their rules on covered entities in additon to the HIPAA rules, adding to the responsibility of covered entities to protect PHI. LabMD’s Motion to Dismiss Complaint with Prejudice and to Stay Administrative Proceedings was denied and LabMD announced that they were closing down.

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Posted February 3, 2014 by Jack Anderson

HIPAA Breach: 20 Years of Hard Labor

Accretive Health gets 20 years of outside monitoring of privacy and security efforts for HIPAA breach. " Additionally, Accretive Health agreed to initial and biennial third-party auditing of their security measures and to maintain those records and make them available to the FTC upon request. The settlement will be in effect for 20 years." Winston & Strawn LLP, Steven Grimes

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Posted January 23, 2014 by Jack Anderson

HIPAA Compliance for Health Insurance Producers

September 23, 2013 was the deadline for all health insurance producers to be HIPAA compliant. A new tool from Compliance Helper helps them get compliant, stay compliant, and prove compliance for only $99 setup and $35 per month.

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Posted January 14, 2014 by Jack Anderson