Small and midsize physician practices confronted challenges seemingly from every direction during 2014.
Doctors and industry observers voiced their views on the realities of contemporary practice in these memorable quotes from Medical Practice Insider’s coverage of the year just concluded.
Read MoreHere’s a cautionary tale: A medical practice comes to us in a panic. It turns out the physician had received a letter from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) ordering an investigation related to a patient data breach – not his own.
Read MoreBack in 2013 Adult & Pediatric Dermatology of Concord, Massachusetts, was hit with a $150,000 HIPAA fine for an unencrypted thumb drive that stored more than 2,200 patient records and was stolen from a staff member’s car. Not only did the dermatology group owe the hefty sum, it joined the ranks of healthcare providers listed on the Wall of Shame where security breaches are reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Department’s (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR). OCR even issued a news release calling out APDerm’s violation of the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.
Read MoreThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pulls no punches when it warns healthcare providers that meaningful use audits are happening, at random, and consequences for failing the audit are costly. If a provider cannot produce documentation that fully supports its electronic health record (EHR) attestation, the CMS could recoup incentive payments.
Read MoreSo you’ve taken all the steps to align your practice with HIPAA mandates — you’ve conducted a risk assessment, you keep regular tabs on your encryption functionality and you’ve memorized your breach disaster plan by heart.You’re ready; the problem is, your business associates may not be.
Read MoreA Saturday night phone call gave no indication it heralded months of bureaucracy, finger pointing, expense — and the dismal realization that even the smallest healthcare provider is liable and harmed when a business associate suffers a HIPAA breach.
Read MoreAsk any medical professional about their biggest concern for protecting patient information and they will probably tell you about the threat of a random audit conducted by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). OCR is tasked with enforcing HIPAA regulations and has the ability to hand out fines up to $1.5 million per violation for a HIPAA breach and failing to comply with HIPAA regulations.
Read MoreTry as they may, small practices are having a hard time running HIPAA’s gamut between compliance and security.Of course, when the source material is so dense and with technical support hard to come by, who could blame them? Certainly not Art Gross.
Read MorePatients prefer it. Medicare’s meaningful use program requires it. And within a few years, health information technology analysts predict that electronic communication will be par for the course in delivering patient care. Indeed, mobile devices and Web-based technology have provided new platforms to market your practice, transmit medical records, consult with other physicians, and maintain closer contact with patients, which are linked to better outcomes. But it also opens the door to privacy and security risks.
Read MoreArmed robbery and drug trafficking are no longer the only crimes of choice for gangs. Instead of a gun, their newest weapon of choice is a mobile phone with Internet access. Now more sophisticated gang members are targeting medical practices and using their smart phones to steal patient records.
Read MoreSince 2013, complaints to the Department of Health and Human Services have risen regarding Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violations.
Read MoreIt’s one thing to have a laptop stolen with 8,000 patient records or for a disgruntled doctor to grab his patients’ records and start his own practice. It’s another when the Cosa Nostra steals that information, siphons money from the patient’s bank account and turns it into a patient trafficking crime ring. Welcome to organized crime in the age of big data.
Read MoreAs office manager of the Fertility Institute of Virginia, Pattie Carson needed to ensure the practice was compliant with laws related to mobile usage, emails, and security. But keeping up with changing laws while running the busy reproductive endocrinology practice was impractical, if not impossible.
Read MoreHealthcare practices are increasingly partnering with trusted cloud service providers to provide enhanced data security along with improved efficiency of IT operations.
Read MoreThe Queens County DA recently arrested two Jamaica Hospital employees for stealing patient data, a lucrative crime occurring at hospitals across the nation.
Read MoreIt’s important for MSPs to understand what HIPAA compliance is, what they can do to be HIPAA compliant, and what might happen if they try to service clients in the medical field without being HIPAA compliant. Luckily, our friend Guy Baroan, expert MSP and owner of IT solutions provider Baroan Technologies, knows his way around HIPAA. Guy explained that a number of clients are medical practices with data that falls under HIPAA compliance standards, which means he’s got to have the necessary security and business practices in place to make sure these standards are met.
Read MoreThe hard reality is that a lot of organizations including HIPAA Covered Entities (physicians, dentists, chiropractors) and their Business Associates (IT, medical billing, transcriptionists, and lawyers) aren’t overly worried about complying with HIPAA.
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