HIPAA news from FierceHealthIT

A Seattle-based health system has agreed to pay a $100,000 HIPAA fine to HHS--as well as improve its medical data security--after failing to properly secure data backup tapes, disks and laptops. This Read more...

A group of the leading lights in the PHR world have come together to endorse a PHR standard, potentially putting to bed the initial arguments over what a PHR actually is and shifting participants' Read more...

A former Congresswoman who once championed health IT legislation unsuccessfully two years ago has come back, this time as the head of a health IT coalition pushing new measures. Former Rep. Nancy Read more...

If providers do a better job of training their staff, privacy breaches will be far less common, according to a new report issued by the AHIMA. Experts quoted in the report note that the recent rash Read more...

A new study confirms what many health IT administrators already know--that hospitals aren't doing a great job when it comes to investing in security. The study, which was commissioned by risk Read more...

This week's piece from Network World points to a troubling problem--that hospitals are in crosshairs these days when it comes to cyberattacks and other forms of black-hat hacking. Given the growing Read more...

According to survey data released at HIMSS last week, 25 percent of hospitals surveyed had seen a security breach within the past year. Even worse, research firm SecureWorks has seen an 85 percent Read more...

Without a doubt, there are a number of good reasons why RHIOs/HIEs should exist. Certainly, it can improve overall patient care if all of the providers a patient is likely to see have the same Read more...

PHRs are not electronic medical records, exactly--and as some people see it, that's exactly the problem. While EMRs enjoy the same HIPAA protection as paper records do, PHRs don't. AHIMA president Bryon Pickard told Congress that's just wrong. And even if laws in a specific state do target PHRs, when consumers and providers are in different states, the tougher state laws may not apply. As a result, AHIMA would like to see Congress enact uniform laws to cover the use or transmission of …

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Over time, the American Health Information Management Association has thrown its weight behind the development of personal health records, calling them "a key element in the U.S. transformation to a safe, more efficient, consumer-driven healthcare system." But at least one professional critic, the founder of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, has taken exception to this stance, arguing that there are gaping holes in PHR …

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