Working remotely has many benefits for employers and employees. A Stanford study found that working from home boosts employee productivity, which was attributed to taking fewer breaks and sick days and working in quieter, more convenient work environments.
In an interview with Briefings on HIPAA, Tim Noonan, deputy director for the Division of Health Information Privacy at OCR, discussed cybersecurity and trends in reports of unsecured PHI to OCR. This article includes the highlights.
OCR meant what it said in February of this year about patients’ right of access to their medical records. The HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule enforcer issued its first enforcement action under its “Right of Access Initiative” in September.
Employees need to know what to do and what not to do when it comes to ensuring protected health information (PHI) remains secure. That’s where TeachPrivacy comes in as an excellent resource for quality staff training.
Many healthcare organizations aren’t doing a great job assessing the HIPAA risks associated with third parties. Some are having a hard time devoting resources. And many are worried that their current manual risk management processes cannot keep pace with cyberthreats.
Patients are getting emboldened in the digital age and want quicker, more efficient—immediate, really—access to medical records. Further, the government is reinforcing existing regulations and creating new rules around data sharing that require entities to make healthcare records more accessible and deliver records to patients in their desired electronic format. Technology innovation has made this much easier for healthcare facilities to accomplish.
