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With providers increasingly skittish about violating HIPAA but uncertain about exactly what is required, some IT professionals see an opportunity to improve data security, says Mick Coady, principal and co-leader of the Health Information Privacy and Security Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the financial services and consulting company in St. Louis.
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Overly strict compliance with HIPAA threatens patient safety and quality of care, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.
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Reducing prescriptions of high-risk antibiotics in hospitals by 30% could lead to 26% fewer cases of deadly diarrhea infections, according to new advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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A proposed change to HIPAA might help healthcare providers alert law enforcement agencies that a persons mental illness should be considered when allowing a gun purchase, an action that is made difficult and sometimes impossible by the convergence of HIPAA and state laws.
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There can be murky situations in which the right interpretation of HIPAA is not obvious, says Patricia Wagner, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Epstein Becker Green in Washington, DC.
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Consumer Reports has released safety scores for U.S. hospitals by combining five key measures into one composite score from 1 to 100.
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A new security risk assessment (SRA) tool to help guide healthcare providers in small- to medium-size offices conduct risk assessments of their organizations is now available from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it will survey up to 1,200 covered entities and business associates to find those in need of a full HIPAA compliance audit.
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Riverside Health System in Newport News, VA, has fired an employee and is offering free credit monitoring to several hundred patients affected by a privacy breach that involved records covering four years.
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The alleged claim by a fired emergency physician, that the chief medical officer (CMO) assured her that her job was not in jeopardy, could complicate matters for the hospital, which is being sued by the doctor, says Jason Koors, JD, legal counsel with MemorialCare Health System in Fountain Valley, CA.