A two-physician practice in Battle Creek, Michigan is reportedly the first health care provider to cease operations as a result of a ransomware attack. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Brookside ENT experienced a malware attack that deleted and overwrote every medical record, bill and appointment in the practice’s system, including backups, and created encrypted
Articles
Bankrupt Medical Records Company Hit with $100,000 Penalty for HIPAA Violations
By William Maruca on
Posted in Articles
Filefax, Inc., a defunct Illinois medical records storage and management company, has been fined $100,000 for improperly handling medical data under an agreement with the court-appointed receiver managing the company’s assets on behalf of its creditors. This settlement has implications for both service providers and their covered entity clients. Fox Rothschild partners Elizabeth Litten and…
When Data is Like Toothpaste
By William Maruca on
In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman warned White House Counsel John Dean against talking to prosecutors investigating the growing Watergate scandal, telling him “Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s going to be very hard to get it back in,” and a useful idiom was born. Personal…
Involuntary Commitment Laws and Privacy Restrictions
By William Maruca on
Posted in Articles, Individual Access Rights
In a recent New York Times op-ed piece entitled “How a Bad Law and a Big Mistake Drove My Mentally Ill Son Away,” the father of a young man involuntarily hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act decries “privacy laws” for limiting his access to information about his son’s whereabouts and care. If this account…
Your Business Associates Hold Your HIPAA Compliance Future in Their Hands: Eleven Things You Can Do
By Michael Kline on
Our partner Elizabeth Litten and I were recently featured again by our good friend Marla Durben Hirsch in her article in the April 2017 issue of Medical Practice Compliance Alert entitled “Business associates who farm out work create more risks for your patients’ PHI.” Full text can be found in the April, 2017 issue, but…
Will the New Administration Trump Efforts to Forecast 2017 Healthcare Trends?
By Michael Kline on
Posted in Articles, Privacy & Security
As she has done in January for several years, our good friend Marla Durben Hirsch quoted my partner Elizabeth Litten and me in Medical Practice Compliance Alert in her article entitled “MIPS, OSHA, other compliance trends likely to affect you in 2017.” For her article, Marla asked various health law professionals to make predictions on…
21st Century Cure for a “Broken” Mental Health System Includes HIPAA Clarification
By William Maruca on
Posted in Articles, Privacy & Security
U.S. Representative Tim Murphy (R-PA) has been a vocal advocate for mental health reform for a number of years. Part of his crusade is driven by his concern that the HIPAA privacy rule “routinely interferes with the timely and continuous flow of health information between health care providers, patients, and families, thereby impeding patient care,…
Bubble Guppies and PHI: Tips for Telecommuting Policies
By William Maruca on
Posted in Articles
Federal enforcement agencies are increasingly focusing on HIPAA breaches which involve mishandling of PHI by telecommuters. Two recent cases illustrate the liability exposure resulting from inadequate oversight of staff working remotely.
Medical equipment supplier Lincare was fined $239,800 as a result of a breach which occurred when an employee left unprotected PHI in a car…
Is Your Facility a PokéStop? (A what?)
By William Maruca on
Posted in Articles, Privacy & Security
Are strangers wandering around your health care facility with their noses buried in their smartphones? And if so, what should you do about it? They’re playing Pokémon GO, a location-based augmented reality mobile game that was released for iOS and Android devices on July 6, 2016. Its popularity exceeded all expectations (my kids are…
Tips on Avoiding HIPAA Breaches for Patient-Employee Records
By Michael Kline on
Our partner Elizabeth Litten and I were featured again by our good friend Marla Durben Hirsch in her article in the April 2016 issue of Medical Practice Compliance Alert entitled “5 safeguards to take with patient-employee health records.” Full text can be found in the April, 2016 issue, but a synopsis is below.
For her…