Category Archives: health care data

Government Reviews Health Care Contractors Data Security. Intel to Inform you.

An Office of Inspector General, Security Concerns, and health care contractors– Sound like a familiar mix?

Which health care contractors is the HHS OIG looking into? Medicare administrative contractors

What is the data security concern that is raised? the number of health care data gaps is INCREASING

Healthcare Dive | OIG report: More data security gaps at Medicare administrative contractors

INTERIM. Health Care Data Security Bill. 4 Takeaways.

What 4 Ways does the Health & Human Services Data Protection Act protect health care data?

  • Creates the  Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) within HHS
  • Creates a data protection arrangement between the new CISO, the HHS General Counsel, & the HHS CIO
  • Keeps information technology & information security separate to ensure the highest level of security
  • Incentivizes better security to protect health care data

Health IT Security | Healthcare Cybersecurity Bill Introduced…

3 Steps for a FitBit can Lead to a Conviction and Probation.

WHO WAS CONVICTED: A woman in Pennsylvania reported her rape to the police

WHAT EVIDENCE LED TO CONVICTION: When police came to the scene, they collected as evidence the woman’s fitbit found laying in a hallway

WHY DID THE EVIDENCE INDICATE GUILT: The woman claimed she had gone to sleep and was later attacked, but the data downloaded from the Fitbit indicated the woman was walking about at the time and logged her heart rate

Wall Street Journal | Prosecutors Say Fitbit Device Exposed…

INTERIM. 3 Reasons Why State Laws are Necessary for Health Care Data Security. Data Privacy.

  • State Attorney Generals oppose federal control over health care data security and data privacy
  • States are better equipped to make fast changes in the data driven economy
  • Breaches that are small and localized are better handled by local authorities and not the federal government

Health IT Security | Are State Health Data Breach Notification Laws Needed?

INTERIM. Lege Trend: Data Security in Telemedicine. 3 Keys from 1 Western State. Read the Bill. Prep your Client.

What state recently enacted new telemedicine laws? Washington State

What data security elements were included in the Washington State legislation? 

  • Establishes best practices that complies with ““generally accepted health care practices and standards.” 
    • Boils down to HIPAA and the HITECH Act & existing state law
  • Establishes a technology standard of ““the standards required by state and federal laws governing the privacy and security of protected health information.”
  • Allows…

3 Points Informed Intel. Why Hackers Target Healthcare Over All Other Industries.

Hacking incidents by industry:

  • 23% of data breaches occured in healthcare
  • 18% of data breaches occured in financial services
  • 16% of data breaches occured in education

34% of healthcare data breaches are caused by employee error

The average notification timeline after a breach:

  • 69 days to detect the incident
  • 7 days to contain it
  • 43 days to analyze what happened
  • 40 days to notify potentially affected individuals

Health IT Security | Healthcare Data Breaches Most Common in 2015…

Another Healthcare Facility Hit with Ransomeware. The Informed Intel in 3 Points.

  • Methodist Hospital in Kentucky was hit by ransomeware
  • The ransomeware, of the “Locky” strain,  encrypted, deleted original files  and is holding hostage all its data for $1,600, or 4 bitcoins
  • Hospital paperwork is being processed by hand

Krebs on Security | Hospital Declares ‘Internal State of Emergency’ After Ransomware Infection

Governing | Hackers Target Hospitals for Ransom

Health care data Security. Non-HIPPA entities. Health & Wellness Apps Beware. Medical Billing Companies Hello. Bonjour Medical Transcribers.

What entities are the new targets for data security enforcement? HIPPA adjacent health and wellness companies. 

Why are HIPPA adjacent health and wellness companies the focus of regulators? These companies collect and store personal health information. For example:

  • Fitbit & health apps. That data from your fitbit gets stored somewhere and if it was collected and stored by a health care provider, it would be protected information. 
  • Medical billing companies
  • Medical Transcription…

Legal Trend: Federal Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Health Care Data Breach Suit

What happened that led to a lawsuit? A health care network experienced a data breach, followed its internal protocols to handle the data breach.

What did the plaintiff’s allege that the health care network didn’t do that caused them harm? health network had violated the HITECH Act in protecting personal health information

What did the courts say? “There is no case law that suggests that an isolated privacy breach or discrete series of related breaches constitute a violation of the…