By Jack Anderson
February 3, 2014
The pressure is building from all sides to protect patient data. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule and HITECH have made it very clear and now the FTC has jumped into the fray. LabMD is the the current victim and has closed down based on this decision. A couple of years ago another company declared bankruptcy after a HIPAA data breach, stating that the cost of defense was beyond their ability to pay.
These are extreme examples but the point is that it is no longer good business practice to ignore your HIPAA responsibilities. HHS is watching, the FTC is watching and perhaps most importantly your business partners are watching. With the new services available through the SaaS model the costs of gettting HIPAA compliant staying compliant and proving compliance have been reduced to a manageable level. Check out www.compliancehelper.com for more information.
Here is the the complete ruling:
http://www.kslaw.com/imageserver/KSPublic/library/publication/hh012714a.pdf