On August 12, Mahesh Nattanmai, New York’s Chief Health Information Officer, issued a notice letter (“the notice”) on behalf of the New York State Department of Health (“Department”) requiring healthcare providers to use a new notification protocol for informing the Department of a potential cybersecurity incident. The updated protocol is considered effective immediately from a
Healthcare Organizations, Is Your Patient Portal Secure?
Co-author: Valerie Jackson
While healthcare organizations are embracing new technologies such as patient portals, a recent report shows that organizations’ cybersecurity measures for these technologies are behind the times. A patient portal is a secure online website that allows patients to access their Electronic Health Record from any device with an Internet connection. Many patient
Maine and Nevada Sign into Law Consumer Privacy Laws
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which goes into effect January 1, 2020, is considered the most robust state privacy law in the United States. The CCPA seems to have spurred a flood of similar legislative proposals on the state level, and started a shift in the consumer privacy law landscape. Many of these proposals
Vermont Court Finds Patient Can Sue Hospital and an Employee for Breach of Confidentiality
In a landmark ruling, the Vermont Supreme Court recently held that a patient had standing to sue both the hospital at which she was a patient and the employee who attended to her, for negligent disclosure of her personal health information to a third-party. Neither the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) nor Vermont
EMR Provider Settles OCR Allegations for $100,000; Is Your EMR provider HIPAA compliant?
Many health care providers, including small and medium-sized physician practices, rely on a number of third party service providers to serve their patients and run their businesses. Perhaps the most important of these is a practice’s electronic medical record (EMR) provider, which manages and stores patient protected health information. EMR providers generally are business associates
HIPAA Penalties Change Under HHS Notice of Enforcement Discretion
When the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 became law, it made significant changes to the civil monetary penalties for violations of HIPAA. In addition to increasing the amounts of the penalties, HITECH created a tiered approach to penalties, establishing four categories based on levels of culpability. In addition,
Small Michigan Medical Practice To Close Following Ransomware Attack
Small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) continue to be targeted by ransomware, phishing and other cyberattacks; the consequences of which could be devastating. Those consequences include putting SMEs out of business, which is unfortunately the case for one small medical practice in Battle Creek, Michigan, as reported by HIPAAJournal.
The reality is that the effects
NIST Publishes Guide to Secure an Organization’s Mobile Devices
Just last month, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), a part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), published guidance for public and private companies to protect mobile devices and help prevent data breaches. The publication, titled “Mobile Device Security: Cloud and Hybrid Build,” is a how to guide for
Privacy and Cybersecurity Issues to Watch in 2019
Privacy and cybersecurity risks continue to emerge for organizations large and small. While by no means exhaustive, we briefly discuss some key issues that organizations may need to focus on in 2019 and beyond.
Business Email Compromise (BEC)/Email Account Compromise (EAC) – BEC and EAC attacks are widespread and show no sign of slowing in
A Trio of OCR HIPAA Breach Resolutions: Is Your Organization HIPAA Compliant?
Over the past thirty days, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has reached three HIPAA breach resolutions, signaling to organizations that are covered entities and business associates under HIPAA, the importance of instituting basic best practices for data breach prevention and response.
On November 26th, the OCR announced a settlement with Allergy Associations