HIPAA

Q . Is it permissible to take pictures of patients (including behavioral health) for identification purposes as a part of the registration process? Do the patients need to sign a consent form before their picture can be taken?

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.

Every healthcare organization should develop and implement a policy and a well-defined process that provides guidance for managing incident and breach response.

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?

Is someone in your organization making sure that PHI is not left on your digital photocopiers?

The September 23 compliance deadline for most of the provisions of the HIPAA omnibus rule has come and gone.

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.

Trying to keep up with one of the Kardashians may have resulted in the firing of six people at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

If there's one conclusion you can reach looking back at data breaches over the last decade, it's that organizations face more threats than ever, according to HIPAA professionals.

To comply with the HIPAA omnibus final rule, healthcare organizations need to revise their risk assessment process to determine whether they must notify affected individuals of a breach.