Having access to the right information at the right time is critical for healthcare professionals, from patient access staff to surgeons, but when it comes to capturing sexual orientation and gender identity data, many organizations are still struggling to get it right. Use these expert tips to help your organization build a more complete, inclusive data set.
University of Washington Medicine in Washington state is notifying 974,000 patients about a data breach which left their health information exposed online for weeks. This follows a recent breach announced by the University of Connecticut Health which affected 326,629 individuals in December.
Q: At the doctor's office where I work, patients are often friends or family members of staff. I heard in passing that my co-worker's boyfriend was coming in for an appointment later that day, when I mentioned it to the co-worker, she said she would be filing a complaint for a HIPAA violation. Is this really a HIPAA violation?
In this month's HIPAA Q&A, our expert answers questions on medical record requests, health insurance exchanges, fines when there has been no breach of PHI, and mandatory encryption.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) released a letter on February 12 in response to HHS’ request for information on modifying HIPAA rules to improve coordinated care, calling for more training and education as opposed to regulatory changes.
Q: Is it a reportable breach if an entity had the ability to send encrypted email, but an unencrypted email was sent to the correct recipient because of a computer fluke or user error?
Not only does your organization need appropriate policies and procedures in place to comply with HIPAA, you also need to make sure that staff members follow those policies and procedures. It’s not an easy task, and each organization has its own way of auditing compliance.
Q: My child’s school requires parents to send a doctor’s note when a student is out sick for more than two days. After providing this note for my child, their teacher spoke to me and mentioned information she could only have learned if she had read the note. Is this a HIPAA violation? Are schools covered by HIPAA if they request doctor's notes?
