ARRA 2009: Privacy & Security Changes – Part II

This article takes a look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which created some significant changes to privacy and security regulations which were outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The ARRA imposes substantial modifications in four main areas: 1) HIPAA statutory requirements; 2) Increased enforcement of HIPAA; 3) Provisions to address health information held by entities not covered by HIPAA; and 4) Other changes including administrative changes, studies, reports and educational initiatives. This article takes a look at the modifications the ARRA made to HIPAA [...]

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ARRA 2009: Privacy & Security Changes – Part I

This article takes a look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which created some significant changes to privacy and security regulations which were outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The ARRA imposes substantial modifications in four main areas: 1) HIPAA statutory requirements; 2) Increased enforcement of HIPAA; 3) Provisions to address health information held by entities not covered by HIPAA; and 4) Other changes including administrative changes, studies, reports and educational initiatives. This article takes a look at the modifications the ARRA made to HIPAA statutory requirements around privacy and [...]

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Data Breaches Cost US Hospitals $6 Billion Annually

The 2010 Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security, conducted by the Ponemon Institute. The study revealed that data breaches were costing hospitals across the US up to $6 billion each year. Breaches of patient information are largely undetected by the organization, due to lack of priority, resources, preparation and staffing for privacy and security [...]

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Finding and fixing mistakes – Data Subject Access & Redress

What happens when a company collects incorrect data? How can a consumer even discover the inconsistencies? What course of action does a consumer take, and what should a corporation do to respect the rights of their [...]

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Abandoned Medical Records happen… Will abandoned EHR happen more?

Abandoned medical records and their privacy implications made the news in two separate incidents over the past 10 days in Massachusetts and Alberta. The push to Electronic Health Records will solve the problem of loss for patients, but will introduce a whole host of other [...]

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