Every healthcare organization should develop and implement a policy and a well-defined process that provides guidance for managing incident and breach response.
It's a brave new world out there for business associates (BA). BAs needed to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule and the use and disclosure provisions of the Privacy Rule in February 2010 as a result of the HITECH Act. However, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) held off on any enforcement activities-that is, until recently.
Q. Is it acceptable for admitting and patient registration staff to photograph patients upon check- in for identification purposes? Is it permissible to take pictures of behavioral health patients for the same purpose?
The healthcare industry is changing rapidly, and if you've been paying attention to the news you've probably noticed the recent wave of hospital mergers.
Q. Is it a HIPAA violation if a hospital receives a faxed Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) request and the hospital cannot identify the patient by full name, last name, or date of birth? These requests contain name, date of birth, provider, and the HEDIS Measure (Chlamydia screening, cervical cancer screening, cholesterol management, etc.) and last date of service of the patient. Typically, these faxed requests are from business associates of the patient's health insurance, but occasionally they come directly from the insurance company.
