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HIPAA Compliant News Articles and Enforcement
Second Breach Involving Unencrypted Laptop from Riverside County Regional Medical Center
ABC News reports that an unencrypted laptop that went missing from Riverside County Regional Medical Center in December may have contained personal information of nearly 7,900 patients. At first, this new report appeared to be an update of a breach disclosure the center made in June, when they reported notifying 563 patients of a missing laptop that had…
HIPAA Enforcement to be Ramped Up
HIPAA Enforcement to be Ramped Up Healthcare Technology Trends for 2015 – HIPAA Journal The Office for Civil Rights delayed its proposed round of compliance audits last year, and while a timescale has not been provided for when they will recommence, OCR Director, Jocelyn Samuels, has promised they will be recommencing ‘expeditiously’. The OCR has…
$9.87 Million Settlement with Safeway for Improperly Disposing Pharmacy Records
California prosecutors have reached a $9.87 million settlement with the grocery store chain Safeway for improperly disposing of pharmacy records and hazardous waste in dumpsters. The patient records contained private and confidential medical information and should have been destroyed or rendered unreadable according to California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and the Health Insurance Portability…
Walgreens Employee’s $1.44M HIPAA Violation Upheld in Court
Employee’s HIPAA Violation Results in $1.44 Million Jury Verdict Against Employer | Seigfreid Bingham, P.C. | A Kansas City, MO Law Firm Last month, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a $1.44 million jury verdict against Walgreens and a pharmacist employed by Walgreens for breaching their duties to keep customer prescription history private. In this…
Dentist Office Fined $12,000 for HIPAA Violations
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office has issued its first fine for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violations pursuant to section 13410(e) of the HITECH Act. The fine of $12,000 was issued to former Kokomo dentist, Joseph Beck, for illegally disposing of the Protected Health Information of his patients. 63 boxes of personal records containing…
HIPAA Compliance Checklist
HIPAA Compliance Checklist Ensure You Comply with the HIPAA Regulations If your organization has access to electronic protected health information (ePHI), it is recommended that you review our HIPAA compliance checklist to ensure that you comply with all the HIPAA regulations for the security and privacy of confidential patient data. Failure to comply with the…
10 Years of Abortion Records Found in Houston Warehouse
10 Years of Abortion Records Found In Houston Warehouse – HIPAA Journal According to a recent report on Houston Radio station, KTRH, the medical records of hundreds – and potentially thousands – of women that attended an unspecified Houston abortion clinic have been discovered in a warehouse in the city. The records were discovered by…
Hospice to be Investigated for Potential HIPAA Violations
Amedisys Hospice to be Investigated for Potential HIPAA Violation – HIPAA Journal The discovery of documents containing the Protected Health Information of 17 patients of Amedisys Hospice, Tennessee has triggered an investigation over the potential HIPAA violation. Earlier this week, Sandra Rambo was walking with her daughter when she came across paperwork on the side…
$400,000 Settlement Reached in Case of Improperly Disposed Medical Records
HIPAA Settlement Reached for Dumpster PHI Exposure – HIPAA Journal Under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) data privacy and security rules, Protected Health Information (PHI) must be secured at all times and when data is no longer required it must be destroyed to prevent accidental exposure. In May 2013, Midwest Women’s Healthcare Specialists…