Most practices cannot afford to hire a HIPAA Compliance Officer. So, practice owners often assign their Office Manager or their Practice Administrator for the HIPAA Compliance Officer Responsibilities. These responsibilities are so much more than just a title. Compliance Officers responsibilities include creating, implementing, maintaining, and ... Read More »
Patients’ right of access has extreme consequences if they are not handled properly. It starts the moment a patient makes this request. HIPAA prohibits unreasonable measures when patients are requesting access to their medical records. Most practices think this request MUST be in writing. Although this is ideal, sometimes it can cause a problem ... Read More »
We wrote about this back in December 2022, but the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has added an additional warning. The OCR has confirmed its active investigations nationwide to ensure compliance with HIPAA. Â The OCR and the FTC are cautioning providers about the privacy and security risks when utilizing ... Read More »
Most of us are familiar with fines for data breaches of over 500 patient records. This time a business associate was fined $75K for 267 records. Covered entities are responsibility to vet their business associates. This includes making sure they understand the HIPAA rules. Such as, conducting risk assessments, determining vulnerabilities and how ... Read More »