A ransomware attack encrypted the protected health information of patients in the New Jersey-based Hackensack Sleep and Pulmonary Center. This incident took place on September 24, 2017 but it was only discovered the next day. […]
There’s a proposed bill called the Data Security and Breach Notification Act that the Senate will vote on. The purpose of the bill is to standardize the requirements of breach notification across all states. Right […]
Healthcare organizations are expected to follow the rules introduced by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The question is which federal departments are enforcing HIPAA rules? How can consumers make sure that covered […]
A clinic worker gets 5-year jail term for stealing the protected health information of Kirkbride Center’s mentally ill patients and selling them to identity thieves. Jean Baptiste Alvarez, age 43, a resident of Aldan, Philadelphia […]
A PHI breach occurred at the Henry Ford Health System based in Detroit which impacted about 18,500 patients. The organization became aware of the breach on October 3, 2017. According to the report, the email […]
A patient cannot sue a healthcare provider for a HIPAA violation and seek damages even when harm resulted. But it is still possible to take legal action against the covered entity and demand damages for […]
Lincare Holdings Inc., one company supplying home respiratory therapy products, had a breach of employee personal data in February 2017. According to the report, an HR department employee emailed the W2 forms of thousands of […]
Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital settled a case with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights earlier this year. The 2014 case involved alleged HIPAA violations over an impermissible disclosure of […]
Hackers attacked the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield database in 2014 and accessed the protected health information of 1.1 million members. The information exposed included names, birth dates, email addresses and subscriber ID numbers. Following the breach, […]
The law firm Bryan Cave, LLP reported an increase in class-action data breach lawsuits faced by the healthcare industry last 2016. This doesn’t mean, however, that the litigation following a breach also increased. Bryan Cave […]
Patients of Otolaryngology Associates of Central Jersey have been notified of a breach involving their protected health information. Burglars broke in an off-site storage facility of the organization and stole 13 boxes of paper medical […]
A ransomware attack on the Ottawa-based East Central Kansas Area Agency on Aging (ECKAAA) resulted in the file encryption of 8,750 patient’s protected health information (PHI). ECKAAA discovered the attack that happened on September 5, […]
A phishing attack on the Medical College of Wisconsin resulted in the potential exposure of protected health information of 9,500 patients. The attack enabled unauthorized access to several employees’ email accounts, which stored sensitive information […]
The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking volunteers for a pilot project on HIPAA Administrative Simplification Optimization. The purpose of this project is to make HIPAA compliance reviews for health plans and healthcare […]
Two independent care providers inappropriately accessed the healthcare data of 683 patients of TJ Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, KY and TJ Health Columbia Clinic. The unauthorized access to patient PHI was discovered on August […]
The number of healthcare data breach incidents was particularly high in September. In the November 2017 healthcare Breach Barometer Report by Protenus, the number was more typical with 37 breach incidents in October. The data […]
The Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany (CCDA) was upgrading its computer security software last August when the technician discovered a malware installed in one of its computer servers. Glen Falls office uses the […]
Just because a firm does not provide healthcare services and does not operate in the field of healthcare, it doesn’t mean that it is not a HIPAA-covered entity. Briggs Stratton Corporation is a manufacturer of […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave an update of the guidelines that medical device manufacturers should follow when it comes to sharing information requested by patients. The medical devices that patients use can […]
There has been confusion regarding HIPAA Rules on sharing patient information to others in case of opioid overdose. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights wanted to clarify the issues […]
Brevard Physician Associates had a recent incident of burglary which resulted in the potential exposure of limited protected health information of about 8,000 patients. On the morning of September 4, 2017, thieves broke into the […]
On September 21, 2017, Texas Children’s Health Plan discovered an incident of PHI theft via email involving the healthcare data of 932 members. Allegedly the PHI was emailed to a former employee’s personal email account […]
One of the major threats in keeping the confidentiality of healthcare data is phishing. If you have noticed, a number of news updates in the past weeks involved healthcare organizations announcing cases of unauthorized access […]
FirstHealth of the Carolinas is a not for profit health network based in Pinehurst, SC that a new Wannacry ransomware variant attacked on October 17, 2017. In May this year, over 230,000 computers around the […]
RiverMend Health is a specialty behavioral health services provider that helps people who have problems with alcohol and drug addiction. The RiverMend Health branch located in Augusta, GA discovered unauthorized access to the email account […]
Phishing is probably the biggest data security threat that healthcare organizations have to face today. In the past few weeks, several phishing attacks on healthcare organizations had been reported. One of which was really serious […]
According to the Breach Barometer report issued by Protenus, healthcare data breaches significantly increased in September 2017. Included in the report were cases of healthcare data breaches received by the Department of Health and Human […]
Last July 31, 2017, Advanced Spine & Pain Center (ASPC) became aware of a potential breach and unauthorized use of patients’ protected health information. About 8,362 patients who might be affected by what happened got […]
There are certain times when the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services exercises his authority to issue a limited waiver of HIPAA sanctions and penalties. In most cases, the announcement is […]
Health organizations, covered entities and their business associates need to be familiar with the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule and must strictly comply. This rule covers the issuance of notifications to patients, plan members and the […]
A tenant named Barbara Jarvis-Neavins filed a report against Illinois-based psychiatrist Dr. Riaz Baber for mishandling the medical records of more than 10,000 patients. Apparently, the psychiatrist rented out his property to Jarvis-Neavins who eventually […]
Recently, there was an incident that a HIPAA-covered entity used an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket to store patients’ medical data. It was the researchers from Kromtech Security who discovered the cloud storage security problem. There were […]
Network Health, a health insurance provider based in Wisconsin, recently informed its 51, 232 plan holders about the unauthorized access of their protected health information (PHI). According to the report, the security breach began in August […]
The HHS wanted to simplify the administrative process for getting certification of compliance for all controlling health plans (CHPs) and promote consistent testing processes for CHPs. However, their proposal for a new rule has been […]
Representatives Dave Trott (D-MI) and Susan Brooks (R-IN) introduced the Internet of Medical Things Resilience Partnership Act in the U.S. House of Representatives recently. With the increase in the number of medical devices and systems […]
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