COVID-19 has ushered in the mass acceptance of telehealth, with so much optimism and excitement around the technology. But like many new technologies, the initial use is rushed and not well thought out with many providers trying to figure out the right technology, best practices, and optimal patient experience. We have seen temporary waivers to...
Mask Mandate Whatever your opinion is of wearing, or not wearing a mask, there are in increasing number of mandates being put in place by governments or independent establishments in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This mask mandate means that most people over a certain age need to have their face covered,...
A year of credit monitoring along with identity theft monitoring services. That’s what most of us settle for when we find out that our personal data has been compromised. We are alerted, we change our password, we read the letter that offers these services and may or may not sign up for them. Some individuals...
We all know (or should know) that human error accounts for the majority of breaches. Phishing gives hackers entry to a business’s front door by manipulating the employees who work there. Phishing is when a cyberattack is disguised and delivered using email as the carrier or weapon. Through very convincing and cleverly designed messages, the...
Employee Privacy in a Pandemic COVID-19 has presented businesses with a new challenge in keeping their company safe and it starts with employee health. As they re-open in the wake of the pandemic, they must keep track of individual health with regard to who is sick and how it might affect the company as a...
Let’s Recap The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) was created in 1996 to protect patients and their privacy, and if you are in healthcare, you already know this and are familiar with what it means. With a goal to ensure that people could maintain health insurance between jobs, thus the “Portability” part of...
The Patients Are Not Equal As COVID-19 took over in the headlines, it also took over at many hospitals around the country. We saw a rise in the number of patients that were taken in and diagnosed with the virus, but there was an unexpected result as well. The rate of decline in-patient activity didn’t...
In mid-March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that they would use “enforcement discretion” in regard to HIPAA compliance with telehealth. And, the healthcare community gave out a collective sigh of relief. Not because the rules and regulations were unfair, but in a time of...
We’ve all had to make adjustments to how we work, how we live, and how we interact overall with humanity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that we’ve been stricter in some regard, and more relaxed in others (limiting screen time, who can be bothered?). The government is no exception to this. We’ve seen some...
HIPAA provides guidelines to establish the permissible use of an individual’s personal health information (PHI). Seems pretty straightforward for the most part. And it was – for the most part. Until we start to dig a little deeper and look at the resources that are now in play (which were not 20+ years ago when...
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