Following Prince’s sudden death on April 21, 2016, media speculation about the causes surrounding the event have already begun to circulate widely. TMZ has reported that the artist was treated for a drug overdose just six days prior to his death. His private jet was reported to have made an emergency landing in Moline,… Read More »
St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit for a 2012 health care data breach. SJHS will split a total settlement of $7.5 million, paying class members $242 each. In addition to the $7.5 million settlement, $3 million has been set aside for patients who suffered from identity theft.… Read More »
Since HIPAA was first enacted in 1996, health care organizations have been required to provide periodic training to their employees to ensure that they understand what’s required of them under the law. As we know, employee training can be time consuming, expensive, and it can have a negative impact on productivity. Today, technology gives us… Read More »
On February 16, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it had reached a settlement with Complete P.T., Pool & Land Physical Therapy, Inc. (CPT) after the organization exposed the protected health information (PHI) of a number of its patients. CPT, a California-based physical therapy practice,… Read More »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have shifted their deadline for Meaningful Use (MU) attestation from the previous February 29 date to Friday, March 11, 2016. This most recent shift in deadline was made so that practices could attest to the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS, formerly PQRI), which has a deadline that… Read More »
The deadline for reporting small breaches to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is quickly approaching. By February 29th, all Covered Entities (CEs) that have had breaches in unsecured protected health information (PHI) that affected 500 individuals or more during 2015 must submit their annual reports if they haven’t done so already. In… Read More »
In today’s digital environment, your practice generates more electronic patient records and shares them with more third parties than ever. Do you know if all of those digital copies of your patient records are fully secure — both in transit and while in storage? You need to be certain — to protect your patients’ privacy,… Read More »
The fireworks accident on July 4th has caused Jason Pierre-Paul (JPP), the defensive end for the New York Giants, not only the amputation of his right index finger but also a $60 million contract. When a picture of JPP’s medical chart from this accident was tweeted by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, this caused an uproar on… Read More »