Help Me With HIPAA

A major breach of PHI was announced by a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon's office on Jun 1. There are so many things about this case from the fact that it involved a malicious insider to how many different ways proper HIPAA policies and procedures would have stopped it, if not prevented it completely. Celebrity patients records breached in this case may make it hit home with a lot of folks who haven't worried too much about those protections until now.

We have talked about insiders as a major vulnerability a lot lately and this one really makes it big news! 15,000 files with medical and personal information. Added to that are pictures including those of celebrity patients records breached without them even know the pictures existed!

More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/107

OCR continued their enforcement trend for 2017 with 2 more settlements announced in May. These stand out on their own because the focus is specific disclosure of PHI instead of major breaches. A total of three patients were involved in these large settlements. This week we review what transpired and what OCR found as violations of privacy for these three patients.

For more information go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/106

A wide variety of questions have come in from listeners over the last few weeks. The list is so good we have a whole episode devoted just to answering listener questions. At least one of these will likely apply to you if not several.

For more information go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/105

All of those ransomware outbreaks we have been dealing with since last year were overshadowed this past week by WannaCry. This has been called called the most destructive attack ever. The most concerning part is that was how bad it was but the US wasn't hit that hard. When these kinds of things happen it is always a good idea to review what you learned from the outbreak and any necessary changes you need to make to protect you from this one happening to you. The is the topic of the day. What should we learn from WannaCry?

Learn more at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/104

You may not even know about all the applications and support logins that vendors use on your applications, systems, and networks. Vendors may set up admin passwords and share them with their whole staff to support you. If they have unlimited access to the systems out there and the usernames and passwords never expire or log off automatically that is certainly not secure. How do you manage all of those? If there are things that automatically log in and run, what about those?

More details at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/103

April has had three more OCR resolution announcements. That's a total of 7 cases for $14.3m in 2017 so far. When we covered resolutions recently I kept waiting for another one to come out and gave up. Then, BAM, three in a row!

For more info go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/102

Are we creating a crisis of trust in healthcare? A business partner put that question out to us recently. We have already been looking at several angles to discuss the patient part in all of this breach and ransomware news. This question seems like the perfect way to approach it. Let's look at the topic and see what we think - Are we creating a crisis of trust in healthcare?

For more information on this podcast and how to win $100 Amazon gift card go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/101

For our 100th episode we wanted to do a Top 10 list. After some thought, we landed on the Top 10 HIPAA Lessons we hope you get from our little podcast.

It is hard to believe that we are publishing our 100th episodes of Help Me With HIPAA! Two years ago we started out with this little idea that has become a really exciting venture for both of us. We truly enjoy the responses and interaction from our listeners. Well, first, we are thrilled to HAVE listeners. But more importantly, we love hearing how much people learn and laugh at the same time. That combination has been our show objective since the very beginning.

Another big thing we are doing with this episode is a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card if you help share and promote us with you social networks. Listen in or go to the website for more details on how to win!

More info at: HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/100

OCR Resolutions 3 and 4 for 2017 were released in February. Examples of what not to do from OCR were released AGAIN. We kept waiting for another resolution to be announced and lump them together. Once we gave up and recorded this episode to review those two you know another one was announced. We will hit that one next time. For now, we review what happened in these cases that resulted in OCR resolutions after a breach notification started an investigation. They are so kind to give us examples of what not to do from OCR without us paying for it!

For more details go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/99

Recently, New Mexico passed a new data breach notification law in March. Once it is signed there will only be 2 states that don't have their own notification rules, Alabama and South Dakota. What do all the state laws mean when you are also required to do HIPAA notifications.

Most of them say that if you are subject to GLBA or HIPAA the notification laws do not apply to you. But, it is always best to be sure you know what your state requires.

HIPAA says that as long as it is more strict than state laws then HIPAA takes precedence but many times states are now enacting stronger legislation in some areas.

California and Texas developed some pretty extensive requirements that apply to CEs and BAs in their states. Massachusetts also added their own twist beyond HIPAA.

More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/98