The September 22, 2014, deadline to revise business associate agreements (BAA) may have seemed like a date far in the future when the HIPAA omnibus final rule was released January 25, 2013. However, this compliance date is now in our rearview mirror as we continue to move along the road toward establishing and maintaining compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule.
In the wake of several large breaches, OCR is ready to ramp up its oversight of HIPAA compliance as it embarks upon Phase 2 of its HIPAA privacy, security, and breach notification audits. OCR began preparing for this round of audits around the same time that news broke of the second-largest HIPAA breach in the U.S., a hacking incident that affected 4.5 million patients treated at or referred to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, Inc.
The OCR continues to crack down on HIPAA breaches, but it also paused to take a look back at past incidents in two annual reports to Congress. The reports, which were released in May, summarize the reported 2011?2012 HIPAA breach and compliance activities as required by the HITECH Act. Although the data presented in the reports details the events from prior years, the causes of the breaches reported to and investigated by OCR are still relevant?and problematic?for healthcare organizations today.
Hardware end-of-life data destruction presents a challenge in the world of healthcare. Whether the data is stored on a laptop, server, or even large biomedical equipment, the data needs to be properly destroyed before being repurposed. Green Delete, Inc., (GDI) offers secure, on-site data destruction that is efficient, quick, and environmentally friendly.
