Who’s On First? Confusion Continues About Who Should be Reporting the Change Healthcare PHI Breaches (UPDATED)

Who’s On First? Confusion Continues About Who Should be Reporting the Change Healthcare PHI Breaches (UPDATED)

by | Jun 12, 2024 | , ,

What should covered entity healthcare providers be considering and doing, especially where Change Healthcare has yet to take any affirmative breach notification actions? In this post, I take a deeper dive into key issues and share suggestions on steps covered entities may wish to take in order to manage ongoing uncertainties and risks that continue to simmer as a result of the Change Healthcare incident.

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Meet New Jersey’s Brand New Data Privacy Act and Its Impact on Healthcare Organizations & Others

Meet New Jersey’s Brand New Data Privacy Act and Its Impact on Healthcare Organizations & Others

by | Jan 26, 2024 | , ,

The New Jersey Data Privacy Act (NJDPA) was enacted on January 16, 2024. Although PHI collected by a HIPAA CE or BA is excluded from the NJDPA HIPAA CEs and BAs are NOT wholly excluded from compliance with the NJDPA. Also, HHS’ recent problematic interpretation that IP addresses collected by a healthcare provider’s website may be PHI adds even more complexity in interpreting the NJDPA.

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Is Your Organization Paying for the Cost of Health Care? You Might be Responsible for a Health Plan with HIPAA Compliance Obligations.

Is Your Organization Paying for the Cost of Health Care? You Might be Responsible for a Health Plan with HIPAA Compliance Obligations.

by | Sep 21, 2023 | , , ,

OCR reaches a new $1.3 million dollar settlement with a health plan for HIPAA violations. OCR says, “HIPAA-regulated entities need to be proactive in ensuring their compliance with the HIPAA Rules, and not wait for OCR to reveal long-standing HIPAA deficiencies.” Employers that offer Employee Benefits must evaluate if they are responsible for a health plan with HIPAA compliance obligations.

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Genetic Testing Company Violates Privacy and Security Policies, FTC Says.

Genetic Testing Company Violates Privacy and Security Policies, FTC Says.

by | Jun 19, 2023 | , , ,

Genetic testing companies, and those who partner with them, must take care to ensure that the scope of how consumers’ sensitive data is used and shared in the future aligns with the scope of consent that was granted by the consumer at the point of collection. The FTC found that a California-based genetic testing company informed consumers that it would only share consumers’ sensitive health and other personal information “in limited circumstances,” but then expanded sharing such information with new third parties, like supermarket chains. The FTC has now stepped up to protect consumers’ sensitive genetic information.

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ONC Says “Vetting” Mobile Apps is Information Blocking

ONC Says “Vetting” Mobile Apps is Information Blocking

by | May 2, 2023 | ,

ONC says actors that require third-party apps to be “vetted” by them for security reasons before allowing patients to use such apps to receive EHI via API technology certified to the Standardized API certification criterion is likely to be information blocking. However, my concern with relying solely on the security criteria required for API certification is that it is too low of a bar to adequately protect patients and other individuals from developers of apps that fail to keep promises to keep individuals’ information confidential.

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ONC Publishes New FAQs on Information Blocking focused on the Privacy Exception.

ONC Publishes New FAQs on Information Blocking focused on the Privacy Exception.

by | Apr 2, 2023 | , ,

The Office of National Coordinator says it receives a lot of questions regarding how the Information Blocking Rule is supposed to work in tandem with the HIPAA Privacy Rule and other federal and state laws governing privacy and confidentiality. Their new FAQs aim to help clarify when actors can choose to not respond to a request for access, exchange, or use of electronic health information.

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ONC Vindicated. Patients Want Immediate Access to Test Results

ONC Vindicated. Patients Want Immediate Access to Test Results

by | Mar 24, 2023 | , ,

JAMA published a study earlier this week finding more than 95% wanted immediate access to test results. However, when speaking to ONC, the study’s lead researcher specifically noted that although 95.3% of patients who received abnormal test results responded that they still would like to continue to receive immediately released results, this was associated with nearly twice the likelihood of worry compared to respondents who received normal results.

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FTC Orders BetterHelp Health App to Pay $7.8M for Sending User Data to Facebook & Snapchat

FTC Orders BetterHelp Health App to Pay $7.8M for Sending User Data to Facebook & Snapchat

by | Mar 2, 2023 | , , ,

The FTC issued a proposed order requiring BetterHelp to pay $7.8 million to consumers to settle charges that it shared consumers’ health data with Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Criteo after promising to keep such data private and claiming it is “certified” as “HIPAA compliant.” The real juice of this case is in the FTC compliant — and HIPAA-covered providers, facilities & organizations can learn a lot about what to watch out for with health data Apps as we continue to march towards the FHIR.

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Not So Sunny News in Arizona –  Major Health Care System Agrees to Pay $1.25 Million HIPAA Settlement for Cybersecurity Hacking Incident from 2016

Not So Sunny News in Arizona –  Major Health Care System Agrees to Pay $1.25 Million HIPAA Settlement for Cybersecurity Hacking Incident from 2016

by | Feb 8, 2023 | , , ,

The forecast for Arizona is thunderstorms, at least for at least one health care system. Last week, OCR announced a $1.25 settlement for HIPAA Security Rule violations brought to light by a cybersecurity hacking incident that took place over five years ago.

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Is Your Organization Ready for an OCR HIPAA Compliance Review re: Use of Online Tracking Technology?

Is Your Organization Ready for an OCR HIPAA Compliance Review re: Use of Online Tracking Technology?

by | Jan 5, 2023 | , , ,

On December 1, 2022, OCR released a “guidance” Bulletin re: “Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates.” From it, we learned (among other things) that OCR believes that an individual’s IP addresses and geo location, collected by a regulated entity’s website, is protected by HIPAA. Now, we have come to learn that HIPAA compliance investigations by OCR are already underway concerning this topic. Are you ready?

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How to Use the Privacy Exception to Deny an Abuser Access to EHI

How to Use the Privacy Exception to Deny an Abuser Access to EHI

by | Mar 5, 2021 | ,

When an Actor wants to potentially deny access of EHI to a person who is suspected of some type of abuse of the individual (the “Abuser”) whose EHI is being sought, the natural inclination is want to look to the Information Blocking (IB) Rule’s Preventing Harm Exception to justify such denial.  However, the IB Rule’s Privacy Exception offers additional options and, in certain ways, more flexibility for the Actor to deny a suspected Abuser’s request for EHI.  

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