Criminal attacks on the healthcare industry have increased 125% since 2010, and are now the leading cause of data breaches at healthcare organizations, according to the results of a study released by the Ponemon Institute in May 2015. At the same time, the study says many hospitals and business associates (BA) are unprepared and cannot ensure patients' privacy against these attacks.
P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute." The sentiment that many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue, has never been truer than with HIPAA compliance.
Q: I perform monthly HIPAA audits of computer systems at the medical group where I am employed. I recently started auditing physicians and allied health professionals who are credentialed members of our medical staff.
Obtaining valid authorizations for disclosure is a significant area of risk for many organizations. Often, staff members handling disclosures don't understand the requirements?especially regarding when authorizations are needed and who can legally sign them. This chapter takes a comprehensive look at authorizations, including required elements, when they're needed, when they're not needed, who can sign them, and the need to screen outside authorizations.
