Care coordination has been at the heart of recent healthcare redesign efforts, which includes integrating primary care with behavioral and mental healthcare, but misunderstandings about how and when HIPAA applies can lead to unnecessary delays and leave organizations vulnerable to compliance risks.
On May 6, HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Touchstone Medical Imaging has agreed to pay a $3 million settlement following a security incident that exposed the protected health information of more than 300,000 patients in 2014.
If a lawyer hits you with a subpoena for a patient’s protected health information, don’t panic—or you may not only violate the patient’s privacy rights under HIPAA, but also be subject to civil action under state law.
The Washington legislature unanimously passed a bill in April that will shorten the state’s data breach notification time to 30 days, which is half the time required by HIPAA.
