HIPAA

Rite Aid to Pay $1 Million to Atone for Their HIPAA Sins

If you are one of the thousands of HIPAA professionals who struggle every day to make their colleagues understand why all the finicky (and let’s face it sometimes downright annoying) HIPAA rules have to be followed to the letter here is yet another cautionary tale you can now use to back your arguments up. On … [Read more…]

This Week’s Top 10 HIPAA Jobs

Once again we have been busy scouring the internet job boards to locate some of the best opportunities for HIPAA professionals across the nation. Here then we present the Top Ten for this week. HIPAA / EDI Healthcare QA Tester Company:           TEKsystems Location:              Chicago, IL Salary:   $42.00 – $0.00 /hour Position Type:   Full Time, Temporary/Contract/Project … [Read more…]

Connecticut AG and Healthnet Cut a Deal over HIPAA Security Breach

Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal made a little bit of history back in January of this year when he became the first AG in the country to bring a HIPAA enforcement action, which he did against insurance giant Health Net. Now he has just made a little more by announcing he has brokered the … [Read more…]

New HIPAA/HITECH “Surveillance Program” by Doctations just released…

There’s a new solution on the market to make HIPAA and HITECH compliance faster and easier, and the real draw is that it makes it easier for physicians to qualify for the stimulus incentives and bonuses from the ARRA, PQRI and E-Prescribing initiatives.  In a business wire issued on October 22nd Reuters highlights the new … [Read more…]

Participating in medical research? Learn how HIPAA impacts the information shared with outsiders.

Clinical trials and medical studies are fundamental to the advancement of medicine. But how does HIPAA impact the research and what personal health information can be shared? The National Institutes of Health has put together a 38-question FAQ addressing this: HIPAA Privacy Rule for Researchers. The good news is that “patients and health plan members … [Read more…]

HIPAA to be expanded to include protection of genetic information – proposed HHS rule

There’s a proposed rule that impacts HIPAA and GINA – no, that’s the name of a specific patient but rather the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (shortened to GINA). The proposed rule was issued on October 1, 2009 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and … [Read more…]

Privacy and Security Rules are expanded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has some direct impacts and implications for HIPAA implementation and compliance. Individuals now have more rights regarding disclosure of their protected health information (PHI); the privacy and security provisions of HIPAA for covered entities and business associates are expanded as well. Not surprisingly, the ARRA also … [Read more…]

Health IT Jobs To Increase By 37 Percent… It’s a good time to be a HIPAA compliance officer

To meet current growth trends in health IT systems and maintenance, the number of IT workers in the field must increase by 37 percent, says professor of health informatics at Oregon Health & Science University, William Hersh. Looking at current numbers, Hersh found 108,000 full-time HIT works in U.S. Hospitals. All careers related to health … [Read more…]

New Law Addresses Genetic Discrimination Gaps in HIPAA

In order to protect the public from possible abuse of their personal genetic information, Congress has voted to ban genetic discrimination in the workplace. The new law addresses questions raised by advances in genetic testing that go beyond the scope of HIPAA. The main thrust of this bill is to deny the opportunity to misuse … [Read more…]