Category: Technology
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The FTC Expands Notification Requirements for Health Breaches on Health Apps
By: Ashton Brock, Burr & Forman LLP On April 26, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a final rule aiming to clarify the current Health Breach Notification Rule (HBN Rule), giving greater protections and expanding breach notification requirements for vendors of personal health information who are not regulated by HIPAA. Pursuant to the FTC,…
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Tracking A Patient’s Every Move: HIPAA Compliance Risk
By: Kelli Fleming with Burr & Forman LLP The Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (”OCR”) recently published a guidance bulletin addressing the use of online tracking technologies by entities covered by HIPAA, including but not limited physician practices. A tracking technology is used to collect information about how online users interact with…
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Proposed Penalties for Information Blocking Violations
By: Kelli C. Fleming, Esq. with Burr & Forman LLP On October 30, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) released a proposed rule establishing penalties against healthcare providers who violate the information-blocking rules implemented under the 21st Century Cures Act. The information blocking rules prohibit a healthcare provider, among other “actors” as…
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Online Tracking Tools—Be Cautious.
By: Kelli C. Fleming, Esq., Burr & Forman LLP The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently teamed up to warn several healthcare providers about the privacy and security risks affiliated with online tracking technologies. According to the warning, these online tracking technologies may, under certain circumstances, be improperly disclosing…
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No Honor Among Thieves
Most Americans will likely never forget where they were in March of 2020 when the world seemingly shut down. While many used that time to reflect, enjoyed down time with family or even binge watched streaming services, health care workers geared up to save the lives of people impacted by COVID-19. The novelty of this…
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Physicians Perspective: Dr. Chris Adams Talks Telemedicine
Adversity and necessity mandate invention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has been transformed almost overnight into a necessary medical tool for remaining connected to our patients. Without warning, physicians suddenly found themselves in the position of adding communication technologies, learning regulatory requirements, and adapting to an entirely new way of interacting with patients, sometimes reinventing…
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Summary of Telehealth Waivers as of April 1, 2020
By: Jim Hoover, Burr & Forman, LLP The changes made to the requirements for telehealth services since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have been swift and substantial. For the first several weeks, it seems changes were made almost daily. As time has passed, the changes to telehealth have stabilized enough that a summary of…
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Telehealth in Alabama during COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE)
prepared by Kim Huey, MJ, CHC, CPC, CCS-P, PCS, CPCO, COC March 19, 2020 The most important thing to remember is that payers have differing definitions of what they consider telehealth. I recommend checking with the applicable insurer for the most up-to-date information affecting requirements for coding and billing of telehealth services. A few things…
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You Can Help Improve Transparency in the Certified Health IT Market
Visit Open Forums in May to Inform a New Comparison Tool Stop by to provide input at an upcoming open forum on the new EHR Reporting Program, which will provide publicly-available, no-cost, comparative information on certified health IT available on the market. We are also providing a link for regional stakeholders to participate in the…
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The Painful Reality of Ransomware and How to Protect Against It
Imagine if in a split second you were unable to access all of your patients’ health care records. A cruel ransomware attack had locked you out of your computer system, and in order to regain your precious data you needed to pay a cybercriminal’s demand in bitcoin. Unfortunately by the time you finish reading this…