Recent HIPAA News

A database which comprises of the personal information of men and women who expressed interest in Vascepa®, a cholesterol drug manufactured by Amarin Pharma, was exposed online. The database, which a third party vendor maintained, [...]

Florida’s Integrated Regional Laboratories (IRL) is informing about 30,000 patients regarding the potential compromise of their protected health information (PHI) as a result of the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) data breach, which was discovered [...]

medRxiv, a health manuscript archiving firm, recently conducted a study which revealed the prevalent noncompliance with the HIPAA right of access. The researchers of this study mailed 51 healthcare providers requesting for medical record and [...]

Eye Care Associates, a fully integrated eye care provider in the northeast Ohio region, had a ransomware attack in late July which led to the inaccessibility of its computer systems. Two weeks after the attack, [...]

The ransomware attack on Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, WA continues to cause problems after its attack two months ago. The attackers asked for $1 million ransom payment in exchange for the encryption unlock [...]

Because of a phishing attack on April 2019, the University of Missouri Health Care (MU Health) is charged with a lawsuit. MU Health found out on May 1, 2019 the one week unauthorized access of [...]

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions proposed a preliminary settlement to resolve the violations of HIPAA, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the electronic health record (EHR) incentive program of the HITECH Act by the electronic health record (EHR) firm [...]

Bayamón Medical Center and Puerto Rico Women and Children’s Hospital had a ransomware attack which affected over 500,000 patients living in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. A press release on July 19, 2019 explained the discovery by [...]

Bayamón Medical Center and Puerto Rico Women and Children’s Hospital were attacked by ransomware, which affected more than half a million patients from Bayamón, Puerto Rico. A press release on July 19, 2019 mentioned the [...]

Businesses governed by HIPAA regulations need to be mindful whenever using emergency text notification systems and ensure not to disclose Protected Health Information (PHI) without authorization. It can be quite difficult to adhere to HIPAA [...]

Compliancy Group made an announcement regarding the new appointment of an experienced healthcare lawyer and legal researcher to the task of helping simplify the complicated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements. The goal [...]

The Department of Veteran Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA OIG) inspected a California VA medical center recently and found security vulnerabilities linked to medical device workarounds as well as non-compliance with Veterans Health Administration [...]

The healthcare industry has had a particularly bad first six months. The many reports of data breaches and the volume of healthcare records exposed every day are very concerning. The trend this 2019 is over [...]

A HIPAA business associate from Madison Heights, MI, Northwood Inc., reported hacking of one of its employee’s email account and potential viewing or acquisition of sensitive patient information. Northwood Inc knew about the breach on [...]

The first GDPR data breach fine has been issued by Authoriteit Persoonsgegevens, the GDPR data protection authority in the Netherlands, to Haga Hospital in the Hague. The hospital is to pay a GDPR fine of [...]

Qmetis, a healthcare technology firm based in New York, was certified compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules for HIPAA business associates after successfully completing the 6-Stage HIPAA Risk Analysis and [...]

Computer Doc is an IT company located in Indian Trail, NC that is now awarded a certificate of compliance with the HIPAA Security, Privacy and Breach Notification Rules, the HITECH Act and the Omnibus Rules [...]

Patients of Wise Health System in Decatur, TX received notification regarding the potential exposure of their protected health information (PHI) because of a phishing attack. About 35,899 patients were affected by the breach. The phishing [...]

The 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report of Ponemon Institute/IBM Security has been published. It is a detailed study of the reported data breaches in 2018. It revealed the continuous increase of data breach [...]

Another healthcare provider confirmed that it was affected by the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) security breach. An unauthorized access of AMCA’s systems resulted to a breach of the protected health information (PHI) of its [...]

Equifax has decided to resolve its federal data breach case by paying at least $575 million. The settlement could possibly go up to $700 million plus the need to make significant improvements to its security [...]

Edgepark Medical Supplies (EMS) discovered on May 13, 2019 that an unauthorized person access the account of some of its customers accounts and altered their addresses causing a redirection of their orders to different delivery [...]

Idaho is giving patients new rights as hospitals implement the new rules. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) is implementing the rules which began July 1, 2019. IDHW stated that patient advocacy groups [...]

Just a few days after expressing the intention to issue a penalty to British Airways the amount of £183 million ($230 M) for its 383-million records breach, the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is [...]

Adirondack Health Vermont notified about 25,000 patients regarding the potential exposure of their protected health information (PHI) due to hacking. The potentially compromised information include the patients’ names, birth dates, healthcare insurance member numbers or [...]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary has declared a partial waiver of HIPAA sanctions and penalties in Louisiana because of the damage that Tropical Storm Barry likely caused when it hit [...]

UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO), which is the GDPR supervisory authority, issued the biggest GDPR penalty to British Airways amounting to £183.39 million or $228 million for failure to employ security controls that led to [...]

Premera Blue Cross agreed to pay $10 million to settle a multi-state data breach lawsuit that involved 30 state attorneys general. The alleged violations of state and federal laws resulted to a breach of 10.4 [...]

Essentia Health is an integrated health system providing services in the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Idaho. Notifications sent to over 1,000 Essentia Health patients stated that some of their protected health information [...]

Nemadji Research Corporation, doing business under the name of California Reimbursement Enterprises, released information regarding the unauthorized person who accessed the email account of an employee. There is potential exposure of the protected health information [...]

GE Aestiva and Aespire Anesthesia devices were found to have an improper authentication vulnerability. These devices are typically used in hospitals all over America. The CVE-2019-10966 vulnerability can allow an attacker to remotely change the [...]

A recent nCipher Security survey explored the value consumers put on their health information privacy and security. The survey had 1,300 U.S. consumers as participants and looked into their attitudes toward online personal privacy, sharing [...]

Hackers exploited a two-year-old vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook targeting U.S. government networks. A warning issued by U.S. Cyber Command talked about the active exploitation of vulnerability CVE-2017-1174 and installation of remote access Trojans and other [...]

A medical student is filing a lawsuit against Marshall University and Cabell Huntington Hospital because some of his protected health information (PHI) was impermissibly disclosed to a class of students. The medical student, which the [...]

Alerts regarding the cybersecurity vulnerabilities discovered in several Medtronic insulin pumps were released by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The vulnerable insulin pumps connect to [...]

According to a recent study, larger healthcare providers are more inclined to have fully developed, sophisticated cybersecurity defenses, whereas smaller healthcare providers struggle to implement cybersecurity best practices. KLAS and CHIME conducted the study and [...]

Franciscan Health located in Mishawaka, IN found out that a former staff committed unauthorized access of the protected health information (PHI) of around 2,200 patients. In a routine privacy review, Franciscan Health learned about the [...]

A former UChicago Medicine patient filed a lawsuit claiming that his medical information along with those of hundred other patients were shared with Google with no prior authorization. The lawsuit accuses UChicago Medical Center, UChicago [...]

Virginia-based Dominion National, which is an insurance company, health plan manager, and administrator of dental and vision benefits, learned that a data breach affected the personal information of individuals connected to the services it provides. [...]

Estes Park Health (EPH) located in Colorado was attacked by ransomware, which extensively encrypted files all across its network. EPH discovered the ransomware attack on June 2, 2019 when employees noticed and reported the computers’ [...]

A patient care coordinator previously employed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) received a one-year imprisonment term for accessing patient healthcare records and utilizing that data for malicious damages. Sue Kalina, 62, living [...]

The Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) gave a warning after a surge in ‘Iranian regime actors’ cyberattacks. Christopher C. Krebs gave the warning as tensions build up [...]

Cybercriminals that locate and exploit vulnerabilities to access healthcare networks and patient information are increasing their activities. The last two months were the worst and second worst months in terms of number of healthcare data [...]

A ransomware attack on Tenx Systems, a company providing software for assisted living communities, impacted over 60 facilities that utilize the software program. Also known as ResiDex Software, Tenx Systems stated the attack happened on [...]

A phishing attack on the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) resulted to the potential compromise of the personal information of 645,000 clients. The phishing attack began on January 9, 2019, which got 9 ODHS [...]

A recent ransomware attack on Shingle Springs Health and Wellness Center (SSHWC) located in Placerville, CA resulted to the potential compromise of the protected health information (PHI) of 21,513 patients. SSHWC found out on April [...]

Rave Mobile Safety is hosting a webinar on June 18, 2019 that seeks to give better understanding of mental health problems, the difficulties community members encounter in relation to mental health conditions, and how to [...]

An extreme ransomware attack on N.E.O Urology based in Boardman, OH impacted all of its IT system. The ransomware brought about extensive file encryption and prevented the healthcare provider from accessing its computers and patient [...]

A phishing attack on Union Labor Life Insurance (ULLI), a subsidiary of Ullico Inc., resulted to the exposure of 87,000 plan members’protected health information (PHI). Data exposure happened because an employee responded to a phishing [...]

An ex-employee of a healthcare provider based in Germantown, MD is alleged to have accessed the protected health information (PHI) of approximately 16,542 patients. The information was allegedly given to a third party to be [...]