Privacy news from FierceEMR
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Survey: Business associates not prepared for new HIPAA breach notification rules
About one-third of companies considered business associates of healthcare providers under HIPAA were not even aware that they now are equally responsible as providers for protecting electronic... Read more...
HHS raises maximum HIPAA privacy fines to $1.5 million
The maximum civil fine for violating HIPAA privacy regulations will jump to $1.5 million per provision from the current $25,000 under an interim final rule published by HHS this week. And no longer... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Public disclosure of health data
In its October issue, Wired magazine listed "forget medical privacy" among its annual list of "Smart Ideas," and quoted Jamie Heywood, founder of data-mining website PatientsLikeMe. Not surprisingly,... Read more...
Four out of five healthcare IT pros had at least one data breach last year
Even IT professionals in hospitals are concerned that their organizations aren't doing enough to safeguard electronic patient information, according to a newly released survey. The Traverse City,... Read more...
Wealth of information online could threaten privacy of de-identified EMRs
Back in 1997, it took an MIT statistician to find ways to re-identify electronic patient data that had been stripped of identifiers--using then-Massachusetts Gov. William Weld as the unsuspecting... Read more...
Healthcare execs see EMR data as their most valuable asset
More than three-quarters of healthcare executives surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers say that information contained in EMRs could become their most valuable asset over the next five years as... Read more...
Privacy advocates slam HIPAA breach notification rules
New, broader HIPAA breach notification rules took effect Wednesday, but several privacy groups, which pushed hard for tougher HIPAA standards in the stimulus legislation, are worried about a... Read more...
Peel raps decision to delay content management standards
The rush to finalize standards and accelerate EMR adoption may unnecessarily put patient confidentiality at risk, says well-known privacy advocate Dr. Deborah Peel. The federal Health Information... Read more...
Physician, staffers plead guilty to unauthorized EMR access in AR celebrity's death
Dr. Jay Holland and two other former staffers at St. Vincent Health System in Little Rock, AR, pleaded guilty this week to misdemeanor criminal violations of HIPAA privacy regulations for... Read more...
Study: EMR adoption lower in states with tough privacy laws
States with tough privacy laws that restrict disclosure of patient data tend to have lower rates of EMR adoption, and the relationship may not be a coincidence, a new study suggests. Writing in the... Read more...
