Legal and practical healthcare information.
It is no secret that protected health information (or “PHI”) is more and more at risk for cybersecurity attacks. In 2022 (the most recent year this statistic is available), the Department for Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) received over 30,000 new complaints alleging violations of HIPAA and, in addition to other …
Continue reading “How Did They Get My Protected Health Information?”
Originally published in Healthcare Michigan, Volume 40, No. 6 Introduction As the intersection of technology and healthcare becomes increasingly nuanced, the field of genomic medicine is rapidly evolving and expanding. Genomic medicine, or personalized medicine focusing on the data holding information on base sequence in an individual’s genome, uses an individual’s genetic information to guide healthcare …
Continue reading “Ensuring Data Privacy in Genomic Medicine: Legal Challenges and Opportunities”
Originally published in Michigan Healthcare Volume 39, No. 12 On December 2, 2022, the US Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modify portions of Part 2 of Title 42 of the Code of …
Continue reading “HHS Proposes Rule on Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records”
Electronic medical records (“EMRs”) have become vital to both hospitals and physician’s practices. They are a secure, electronic version of a patients’ medical history and often include all of the clinical data relevant to a patient’s care, including demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports. The …
Continue reading “What To Do When Your Hospital’s System Crashes”
In its “2017 Year in Review” (https://www.justice.gov/criminal- fraud/file/1026996/download), the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice announced the launch of its Health Care Fraud Unit’s Data Analytics Team. While the use of data analytics is not new to the Department of Health and Human Services and civil enforcement section of …
Continue reading “Launch of the Criminal Division’s In-House Health Care Data Analytics Team”
For those familiar with the Shonda Rhimes juggernaut, Grey’s Anatomy, it is the story of surgical residents, fellows, and attending physicians as they work in the surgical wing of the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. In most episodes, the situations in which the doctors find themselves in are entertaining, but not necessarily how they might …
By: Kimberly Ruppel and Billee Lightvoet Ward Preventing unintended or unauthorized disclosure of protected health information is an ever-present goal of all covered entities and business associates. However, protective firewalls and electronic data security measures are not enough to avoid a potentially costly penalty or settlement amount in the event of a breach. In order …
Continue reading “Attempting To Avoid The High Cost Of A Reported HIPAA Breach”
Join TechTown, University of Windsor, Canadian Technology Accelerator, Consulate General of Canada in Detroit, and We-Tech Alliance for the first ever Canada-US Health IT Innovation Summit in Detroit on Thursday, April 28, 2016 at TechTown. This event is a unique opportunity to connect American and Canadian companies in exploring new areas and avenues for innovation …
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By Craig Phillips In the last couple of weeks, numerous large health organizations, including hospitals, have been the target of malware attacks. Last night, MedStar, which operates ten hospitals in Washington, D.C. and Maryland was hit with malware and had to take all of their computer systems, including every station in every hospital offline. MedStar, …
Continue reading “Healthcare Industry Sees Increase in Malware Attacks”
By Rose Willis An amendment to HIPAA’s privacy rules will allow a limited subset of covered entities (such as, potentially, state agencies) to disclose information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The amendment takes effect February 5, 2016, and will be most relevant in those states that do not already require reporting …