Keeping up with HIPAA regulations is essential for any medical practice. Failure to comply can be costly, with HIPAA violation fines ranging from $100 to over $4 million – according to a recent article from inspired eLearning. Violations occur when the acquisition, access, use or disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI) is carried out in a way that results in a significant personal risk to the patient, resulting in the loss of privacy and vulnerability to identity the

Rita Luthra, a Springfield, MA-based gynecologist, was recently sentenced to one-year probation for a criminal HIPAA violation and obstruction of a criminal healthcare investigation, as reported by Health IT Security. In April, a jury convicted her of allowing a Warner Chilcott sales representative to access patient records, and then lying to federal investigators. In the original compliant, the Department of Justice (DoJ) alleged that Luthra allowed this sales representativ

The healthcare industry is currently experiencing two major trends that are on a potentially dangerous collision course, reports Bardy Ranum of Dizzion, a cloud-delivered desktop and end-user computing solutions provider. The rise of telemedicine (and the corresponding increase in remote workers) and a spike in healthcare data breaches. As early as 2014, a telemedicine survey by Foley & Lardner found that an astonishing 90 percent of healthcare organizations had already imple

A Houston nurse was fired after allegedly violating HIPAA laws by posting about a patient with measles in an anti-vaccination Facebook group, reports the Dallas News. While it may seem obvious that nurses should be savvy about patient privacy and social media use, this incident—as well as others—illustrate that more education is needed, says a recent article by Jennifer Thew, RN, of HealthLeaders. "Nurses need to be aware of the professional reputation they're creating for th

Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood announced last week a settlement with The Arc of Erie County, a Buffalo-based nonprofit that provides services to people with developmental disabilities and their families, after determining that the company exposed clients’ sensitive personal information on the internet for years. The settlement requires The Arc of Erie County to conduct a thorough risk analysis of security risks and vulnerabilities of all electronic equipment and data s