Here at Answers Media Network, we regularly publish resources on cybersecurity to help physician practices, hospitals and business associates understand how to best thwart attacks and minimize exposure if there is a breach. These resources run the gamut, from published articles from industry thought leaders to episodes from various shows airing or aired on our HealthcareNOW Radio station. We also…

By Matt Fisher, Esq Twitter: @matt_r_fisher Host of Healthcare de Jure – #HCdeJure The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $3.5 million settlement with Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. and five of its subsidiaries (collectively, Fresenius) following the report and investigation of five separate breach notifications. Of note, the five breaches in total impacted 521 individuals with no…

By Art Gross, President and CEO, HIPAA Secure Now! Twitter: @HIPAASecureNow Billion-dollar electronic health record (EHR) company Allscripts has fallen victim to a ransomware attack, which began on Thursday, January 18 around 2:00 a.m. EST. By 6:00 a.m. EST, the ransomware attack was full-blown requiring Microsoft and Cisco’s incident response teams to be called upon for assistance. An article on CSO explores the…

By Matt Fisher, Esq Twitter: @matt_r_fisher Host of Healthcare de Jure – #HCdeJure A $2.3 million HIPAA settlement by 21st Century Oncology from mid-December 2017 seemed to mostly fly under the radar. A combination of events seems to have helped push the low profile, namely lack of an announcement by the Office for Civil Rights and an unfamiliar venue for…

By Matt Fisher, Esq Twitter: @matt_r_fisher Host of Healthcare de Jure – #HCdeJure Video recording has been as simple as turning on a smartphone and videos appear on the internet all of the time. Police body cameras are another growing area where a video is taken every day and in all sorts of locations. When those videos record activities in…

By Art Gross Twitter: @HIPAASecureNow The topic of ransomware, especially ransomware hitting healthcare organizations, is making headlines daily. Dan Munro has a very good article over at Forbes that asks an important question: Is Ransomware Considered A Health Data Breach Under HIPAA? David Harlow (@healthblawg), Principal – The Harlow Group, LLC, whose insight into HIPAA law I respect greatly, states:…

By Matt Fisher, Esq Twitter: @matt_r_fisher Another HIPAA breach settlement announcement and another lesson from the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”). Cornell Prescription Pharmacy (“Cornell”) is a single location pharmacy located in Colorado that will pay OCR $125,000 to resolve allegations of a variety of HIPAA violations. When the facts of the circumstances are…

Two Articles Shine the Spotlight on the Subject By Edward Jones III, Author and President of HIPAA, LLC. Twitter: @HIPAAsafeguards On July 13, Politico published online an article entitled “Electronic heath records ripe for theft,” which is available online.  This article makes several important points and we commend it to your attention.  First, the article states: “[w]hile a stolen credit…

By Tom Sullivan, Editor, Government Health IT Twitter: @GovHITEditor If the healthcare providers that have been operating under HIPAA for nearly two decades were the only ones required to comply with the new rule on privacy and security, that would be challenging enough. But they’re not. Instead, the business associates deemed covered entities beginning September 23 are entirely new to the law…