From a compliance and security standpoint, few tasks are more important for healthcare organizations than the creation and regular maintenance of an information technology (IT) asset inventory.
Q: If an individual requests an electronic copy of protected health information (PHI) and the covered entity (CE) maintains that particular record only on paper, what is the standard procedure? Can a paper copy suffice? Does the covered entity need to find a way to deliver the record electronically?
Universal Health Services (UHS), one of the nation’s largest hospital management companies, on September 27 suffered a cyberattack that resulted in the company disconnecting all systems and temporarily shutting down its network.
When an organization discovers a hacker infiltrating the network, the natural response is to act quickly and shut down everything.
Of course, it’s important to show urgency in a response, but urgency without a well-constructed, well-rehearsed plan won’t do an organization any good. In fact, it may even exacerbate the issue.
Q: Under what circumstances can a CE disclose PHI to family and friends of the patient? Does the patient always need to verbally consent to the disclosure? For example, if a patient brings a friend or family member with him or her into the emergency room, should the doctor assume that the patient is OK with the friend or family member being privy to PHI?
CHSPSC, LLC, a business associate providing services such as IT and HIM to hospitals and physician clinics owned by Community Health Systems in Franklin, Tennessee, agreed to pay $2.3 million to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and to adopt a corrective action plan to settle potential HIPAA violations.
Q: We recently took a survey and many of our employees admitted to saving their passwords in a Word® document or a Notes® file on their phone. Is this riskier than having passwords written down on paper and stored in a safe place at work or home? How can we discourage employees from writing down their passwords anywhere?
Inova Health System, a nonprofit healthcare provider based out of Merrifield, Virginia, reported a breach on September 9 affecting 1,045,270 individuals, according to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) breach portal.
