Month: May 2019
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How Are HIPAA Breaches Impacting Alabama?
HIPAA enforcement reached an all-time high in 2018, with financial settlements ranging from $100,000 to $16,000,000. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for providing oversight and ensuring HIPAA compliance. Last year alone, OCR resolved a total of 25,089 complaints of HIPAA violations and required at least…
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First Presumptive Positive Measles Case in Alabama for 2019
The Alabama Department of Public Health received notification of a case of presumptive positive measles the morning of May 2 in an infant in St. Clair County. Currently, this is the only presumptive measles case under investigation in Alabama. The infant was considered contagious from April 23, 2019, through May 1, 2019. ADPH is working…
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CDC Clarifies Opioid Prescribing Guidelines
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016, physicians have relied on the document for recommendations when prescribing pain medication to their patients. However, because the CDC did not specifically clarify the guidelines in the original release, many physicians’ groups have been concerned the…
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Drug Overdoses in Young People on the Rise
PISCATAWAY, NJ – In American adolescents and young adults, death rates from drug poisoning, particularly from opioids, have sharply increased over the last 10 years, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In 2006, the death rate from drug poisoning from any type of legal or illicit drug was 8.1…
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HHS Lowers Annual Limits of Penalties for HIPAA Violations
Published in the Federal Register on April 30, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS“) issued a notification to inform the public that HHS is exercising its discretion in how it applies regulations concerning the assessment of civil money penalties (“CMPs“) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA“), as…
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How Can You Ensure Your Email is Safe and HIPAA Compliant?
Using free email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and MSN are expedient and easy to set up. It’s the reason why some healthcare providers rely on them. While you could stretch to make the argument that these email services can be configured to be “HIPAA capable,” none in the eyes of security experts are HIPAA compliant.…