HIPAA

One thing the release of the omnibus final rule has left healthcare ­organizations asking is, "Where do we start?"

Business associates (BA) definitely have their work cut out for them.

Does your organization treat HIPAA compliance as kismet or karma?

Q. A long-term care facility has deployed laptops that connect to a file server and are password ­protected. The laptops are not used to store PHI or other confidential data and are not removed from the facility. Do the laptop hard drives need to be encrypted?

Add another piece of evidence to the pile that shows data breaches in healthcare organizations are common and human error is often to blame.

HIM directors must revisit and potentially refine processes for patient record restriction requests and requests for electronic copies of medical records ­because of the HHS HIPAA omnibus final rule.

What better time to gauge HIPAA compliance than now with the January publishing of HHS' major HIPAA omnibus final rule.

If there's one conclusion that OCR is ready to draw from the 115 HIPAA compliance audits conducted last year, it's that there is plenty of room for improvement.

Many healthcare organizations face the challenge of protecting patient records and reducing the stress that results from a data breach.

Citrix ShareFile offers a secure file-sharing solution that can be used to securely collaborate on documents, forward medical images to other healthcare providers, share treatment information with patients, and provide other ways to connect workforce members, healthcare entities, and individuals.