Privacy and Security

As more providers are using digital data, privacy and security issues have become a greater concern. Protecting confidential patient information is also a priority for IT vendors, who are interested in offering solutions that come equipped with heightened security features. The industry-wide transition to HIPAA 5010 code set comes with heightened emphasis on privacy of patient data content in provider transactions, since 5010 aims to ensure that only the "minimum necessary" personal health information required for business purposes is included in a transaction.

RELATED STORIES:
Privacy hindering EHR progress, say researchers
HHS proposes new privacy, security rules

 
Maine's HealthInfoNet, a nonprofit that operates the statewide health information exchange, announced that all acute care hospitals are now under contract to connect to the query-based HIE. HealthInfoNet has 34 of the 38 hospitals connected already and expects the remaining four hospitals to connect by the end of the year.
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May 21, 2013
News
Siemens Healthcare and Louisiana State University are notifying 8,330 patients of a HIPAA breach following a database mishap that resulted in billing and treatment information being mailed to the wrong patients.
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May 17, 2013
News
The Regional Medical Center in Memphis is notifying patients of a data breach after an employee sent out three unsecure emails containing the protected health information and Social Security numbers of nearly 1,200 patients.
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May 13, 2013
News
Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic is notifying 17,300 patients of a data breach after it provided patient X-rays to a third-party vendor, which sold the films to an Ohio-based recycling company that harvested the silver from the X-rays.
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May 9, 2013
News
American Health Information Management Association has launched a best practice guide to help consumers better evaluate the merits of specific mobile health apps.
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May 7, 2013
News
It's the third big HIPAA breach for the University of Rochester Medical Center after officials announced Friday that one of its physicians had misplaced an unencrypted USB drive containing the protected health information of 537 patients.
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May 6, 2013
News
Patient Privacy Rights announced Friday the appointment of Adrian Gropper, MD as its first chief technology officer. Gropper has worked with federal initiatives and the Markle Foundation to help create the Direct Project's secure email system and Blue Button technologies.
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May 3, 2013
News
Officials at the New Braunfels, Texas-based Hope Hospice have notified 818 patients following a HIPAA breach after an employee emailed a report of patient referrals and admissions via an unsecured channel on two separate occasions.
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April 30, 2013
News
A new case study examining a 2012 Utah Department of Health data breach that compromised the protected health information of 780,000 individuals has underscored a strong association between healthcare data breaches and incidents of fraud.
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April 29, 2013
News
At the 2013 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans this past March, one attendee tweeted something to the effect of: "Attending a session on mobile healthcare – or, as we call it: healthcare."
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April 28, 2013
News
Faxing confidential patient health data has its own set of privacy issues, as the Oakland, Calif.-based WestCoast Children's Clinic can attest. The clinic has notified patients of a HIPAA breach after it faxed patients' protected health information to an incorrect fax number.
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April 25, 2013
News
Healthcare institutions should emulate best-of-breed privacy polices developed by financial services firms rather than other hospitals, recommends Kaye Scholer and William Tanenbaum, technology lawyers at New York-based law firm William A. Tanenbaum.
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April 25, 2013
News
In January 2012, Healthcare IT News conducted a survey to identify drivers and challenges for developing and deploying a solution for centralized digital document delivery that complies with healthcare industry regulations. Read this report to learn the key findings from the survey investigating trends in the adoption of digital document management systems by healthcare institutions since the rollout of the <a href="/directory/health-information-technology-economic-and-clinical-health-hitech-act" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">HITECH</a> Act’s financial incentive programs.
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September 2, 2012
Resource
sites/default/files/resource-media/pdf/opentext_white_paper_final.pdf
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This whitepaper looks at the five ways doctors and their hospitals can benefit from the ability to achieve instant communications routed per physicians’ preferences. With the improved ability for doctors to coordinate care through well-routed communication requests, patient care gets a boost, staff satisfaction goes up, and the healthcare system can achieve overall greater efficiency.
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June 1, 2012
Resource
sites/default/files/resource-media/pdf/amcom_5-ways-doctors-instant-communications.pdf
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Why does the Network Matter? In a mission critical Children’s hospital environment the network can’t miss a beat. 100% uptime to support life-critical medical systems and high-definition voice and video needed to be built and delivered. Find out how Maron Structure Technologies and Juniper delivered this mission-critical network.
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May 16, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/building-underlying-infrastructure-state-art-children%E2%80%99s-hospital?affiliatedata=himsswebsite
In this Webinar, we will address health BI challenges and discuss our end to end business analytics platform that transforms the data center, enables modern applications, unlocks insights on any data, and empowers people centric IT.
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May 15, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/microsoft%E2%80%99s-role-health-analytics-epic-provider?affiliatedata=himsswebsite
Recent headlines have raised plenty of eyebrows with record setting big-dollar penalties levied against healthcare organizations due to HIPAA violations. Industry experts surmise that this unprecedented trend is the result of significant changes that have occurred recently to HIPAA regulations.
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May 14, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/million-dollar-hipaa-penalties-healthcare?partnerref=website
Cloud-based Microsoft Exchange service features all the mission critical enterprise-class communication and collaboration capabilities of an in-house solution without the unpredictable costs and management headaches. With flexible customization options, healthcare organizations can seamlessly move to a cloud-based solution without compromising security or altering their current encryption approach.
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May 9, 2013
Resource
sites/default/files/resource-media/pdf/apptix_whitepaper_cloudreliabilitycost_0423_final.pdf
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Do you still rely on tactical integration? Strategic interoperability can move your organization beyond tactical integration by connecting internal and external data, systems, and users across the broader IT ecosystem. This approach is increasingly critical to support a broad range of major healthcare initiatives including ACO, analytics, meaningful use, population management, device integration, and more. Strategic interoperability can deliver quick-to-achieve breakthrough clinical and operational benefits.
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May 6, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/strategic-interoperability-providing-solutions-achieve-connected-care?affiliatedata=website
The CMS EHR Incentive program (commonly known as Meaningful Use) is not just about getting all providers to use EHRs. It’s creating a foundation of detail clinical and administrative data – all expressed in the same standard vocabulary – that can be used to automate the calculation and reporting of patient outcomes. With the shift from volume to value in care delivery and reimbursement models, comprehensive quality measures are an essential element – else how can we determine value? But the historical approach to measuring quality using manually abstracted data will not work in a healthcare environment focused on value. Quality metrics must be automated. The industry must shift to eMeasures – metrics calculated and reported based on data captured in the EHR as a by-product of care delivery. This spring, CMS published the timeline for implementing a unified set of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and e-reporting requirements intended to synchronize and integrate CMS quality programs and reduce provider reporting burden. Are you prepared to embark on the journey to the new generation of quality measures and reporting?
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May 6, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/quality-etrek-next-generation-measures-value?affiliatedata=website
In healthcare organizations today, it's all about getting the most from the technology you choose by providing versatility. One monitor mounted on a wall in a patient room, programmed at the back end with applications, cable and other features, can deliver a host of multimedia choices. These can range from TV, movies, music, Internet access, email and games to educational information, treatment tips and even meal menus - far from the days of simple in-room television.
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May 6, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/embracing-mounted-av-technology-improve-patient-experience?affiliatedata=himsswebsite
The Office of the National Coordinator has specified the use of RxNorm as the medication and medication allergy vocabulary constraint within certified systems which enable Meaningful Use Stage 2 clinical information exchanges. Specifications for the electronic computation of clinical quality measures (CQM) leverage “eMeasures” and their associations to medication and medication allergy value sets to enable the programmatic computation of summary CQM reports for CMS submission.
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April 30, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/use-rxnorm-within-information-exchange-and-clinical-quality-measures?affiliatedata=website
Microsoft Office 365 brings together online versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync along with our familiar Office Professional Plus suite. It is designed to help meet healthcare organizations’ need for patient-centered collaboration, robust security and adherence to privacy regulations, including full support for a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement. Microsoft Office 365 provides the user experience, productivity, and IT management capabilities that healthcare enterprises have come to know and trust for mission-critical applications while affording decision-makers the flexibility in meeting challenging business scenarios through implementation and licensing options.
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April 25, 2013
Resource
Do Not Protect
http://www.medtechwebinars.com/registration/webinar/office-365-using-secure-compliant-cloud-transform-email-communication-and?partnerref=himsswebsite
What are the most important questions to ask when selecting a secure texting solution? Find out what really matters by reading this whitepaper on the 10 most important things to know when evaluating a solution.
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April 19, 2013
Resource
sites/default/files/resource-media/pdf/tigertext_white_paper_-_top_10_considerations_when_selecting_a_secure_text_messaging_solution.pdf
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Every organization is considering “cloud” approaches for their business, yet if you ask “what is cloud” you’ll get a wide range of answers. This variety of cloud options has an impact on healthcare organizations, especially those contemplating a future cloud strategy aligned to regulatory compliance.
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May 6, 2013
Blog
If you’re an IT vendor who services healthcare clients, you’re no doubt well-acquainted with HIPAA compliance rules. And chances are that lately you’ve been hearing rumblings about the new HIPAA Omnibus rule.
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April 26, 2013
Blog
All organizations have a business imperative to control risk. For healthcare companies that corporate responsibility extends to the protection of ePHI within their organization.
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April 3, 2013
Blog
To put it mildly, the transition to EHRs comes freighted with a whole host of expectations.
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February 7, 2013
Blog
Were you run over by the HIPAA bus yesterday? The Omnibus final rule finally landed with a crunch last night. If you check out #HIPAAbus, you'll see my notes from my blaze through with page numbers.
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January 18, 2013
Blog
t’s time for some New Year’s resolutions; and they have nothing to do with eating right, losing weight or exercising. Instead, they have everything to do with protecting against the organizational and financial stresses of data breaches.
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January 8, 2013
Blog
As I travel the country, I find that CIOs everywhere are struggling with BYOD in particular but remote access more generally.
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November 30, 2012
Blog
Just two and a half years after hosting a workshop on the HIPAA Privacy Rule's de-identification standard, OCR has issued its "Guidance Regarding Methods for De-identification of Protected Health Information in Accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule."
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November 29, 2012
Blog
Google your name. The first results will likely be physician finder sites like RateMDs.com, Health Grades or Vitals, or broad-based service finders like Yelp or InsiderPages. The reviews can be critical to your success as a doctor in today’s world, regardless of whether they are true or not.
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November 8, 2012
Blog
Although we all applaud the massive push towards electronic health records and the digitization of medical information, there are some very tangible cybercrime data breach threats that exist which could topple the momentum gained by the launch of the HITECH Act two and half years ago.
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October 31, 2012
Blog
Since I keep track of this stuff, I need to include this BBC story on my blog. It involves a patient in a hospital ward taking a picture of another patient and posting it on Facebook along with an insult.
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October 4, 2012
Blog
I’ve always been of the opinion that anything I disseminate via social media is pretty much fair game, and I try to play by the golden rule of “If you don’t want it used against you in a court of law, don’t tweet it, post it, link it, pin it, etc.”
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July 9, 2012
Blog
Cognosante, a provider of IT services for healthcare organizations, announced it was awarded a contract from Orion Health to provide integration and identity management for the first phase of the Massachusetts Statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) program.
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October 2, 2012
Press Release
Aetna and Hunterdon HealthCare Partners have announced a new accountable care agreement that will improve the quality and cost of patient care, helping members and plan sponsors save money.
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July 19, 2012
Press Release
Vormetric, Inc., the leader in enterprise systems encryption and key management, today announced the results from an independent research report conducted by the Ponemon Institute on how organizations manage data security risks in cloud computing environments. The survey of 1,000 IT security practitioners and enterprise compliance officers revealed that less than half of all respondents believe their organizations have adequate technologies to secure their cloud infrastructures. Meanwhile, the two groups sharply disagreed on whether the cloud is as secure as on-premise datacenters, who is responsible for cloud data security, and what security measures should be used.
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November 1, 2011
Press Release
Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, in partnership with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), has launched a secure email service that enables health care providers to exchange health information electronically with other providers.
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August 31, 2011
Press Release
When a baby requires care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), it is a stressful time for the entire family. St. Jude Medical Center, part of the St. Joseph Health System, has made it a little easier. For parents with babies in the St. Jude NICU, no matter where they are, no matter if it is 2 a.m. or 2 p.m.-their infant is now as close as a computer or mobile device.
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July 7, 2011
Press Release
Seven community health centers and federally qualified health centers in central Indiana are now part of the Indiana Health Information Exchange's (IHIE) quality initiative, called the Quality Health First Program. Open Door Health Services, based in Muncie, is the latest participant the program.
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June 21, 2011
Press Release
To help health care organizations and their business partners address evolving federal requirements for health data security and privacy, Verizon is enhancing two of its security programs.
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June 2, 2011
Press Release
Health Level Seven® International (HL7), the global authority for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology with members in 55 countries, today announced the appointment of Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), to the HL7 Board of Directors.
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May 31, 2011
Press Release
CareTech Solutions, an information technology and Web products and services provider for more than 180 U.S. hospitals and health systems, announced today that St. Luke's Hospital & Health Network (SLHHN) in Bethlehem, PA. selected the company to provide remote 24/7/365 IT infrastructure monitoring from CareTech's Healthcare Infrastructure Operations Center (HIOC), a technology hub for the storing and monitoring of data, systems and applications located in Troy, Mich.
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May 31, 2011
Press Release
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) announced today a new component of the CSF Assurance program targeted at healthcare organizations with annual revenue less than $25 million. The new security assessment approach addresses the wide-scale inaccuracies found in assessments conducted by smaller organizations and extends the reach and value of the CSF Assurance program, the most widely used approach for documenting risk assessment information in the healthcare industry. The HITRUST CSF Assessment for Small Organizations is a practical and effective solution for organizations wanting to perform accurate assessments of their information security environment and address the requirements of meaningful use.
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May 26, 2011
Press Release
Sage Healthcare Division, a unit of Sage North America, announced today that its client, Dr. Moore & Associates, a primary care practice in Brooklyn, NY, is among several of the company's clients to successfully attest to Stage 1 meaningful use under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program.
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May 25, 2011
Press Release
A team from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Stanford University is exploring a new approach to clinical trials that experts say will cost less and be easier to translate into practice.
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May 9, 2011
Press Release