You hear it over and over again. Covered Entity (CE) A failed to produce an ongoing risk assessment for HIPAA security compliance. CE B had an incomplete risk analysis, leading to a failure to recognize security weaknesses and vulnerabilities. And in come the fines.
The HIPAA Omnibus Rule, which includes modifications to the privacy and security rules, is in full effect now. And guess what? There's no reason to be terrified.
Despite gains in compliance and security potentially linked to industry emphasis on the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, some dangerous gaps remain regarding corporate email and file transfer habits.
Watch out, HIPAA privacy and security officers. The criminals are coming, and they want to make money off of PHI your organization stores. It's one more thing to add to the growing list of compliance concerns covered entities (CE) and business associates (BA) have to worry about when protecting internal PHI.
The HIPAA Security Rule preamble reinforces training "criticality" and restates the standard, "We require training of the workforce as reasonable and appropriate to carry out their functions in the facility." Security training is essential.
Q: My brother claims he read in his dentist's HIPAA statement that information was disclosed to CIA and other government agencies. I suspect that his dentist was editorializing, but wanted to check. Could you explain what should be included in a HIPAA statement that should be in physician/dentist offices? Can you direct me to the official statement?
