The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services (AHIOS), an organization committed to promoting excellence in the handling and dissemination of confidential patient-identifiable information, gathered for its annual Fall meeting in Orlando, FL, on Sept. 30, following the annual American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) ...

In a letter last week directed to Georgina Verdugo, JD, LLM, MPA, director of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) responded to the July 14 proposed privacy rule changes pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). AHIMA President ...

Rite Aid Corp. and its 40 affiliated entities have agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. In a coordinated action, the company also signed a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to settle potential violations of ...

The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services (AHIOS) gathered for its annual Spring meeting in New Orleans back in March. Joining the AHIOS members at the meeting were healthcare industry expert, Dr. Deborah Peel of Patient Privacy Rights and an expert from a Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) vendor. Both presenters emphasized the ...

At the request of several Members of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is further delaying enforcement of the ''Red Flags'' Rule through Dec. 31, 2010, while Congress considers legislation that would affect the scope of entities covered by the rule. ''Congress needs to fix the unintended consequences of the legislation establishing the ...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will host its sixth national education call regarding Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) implementation of HIPAA Version 5010 and D.0 transaction standards on May 26 from 2 - 3:30 p.m. EST.  This session will focus on the 837 Professional claim transaction. Subject matter experts will review ...

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) submitted comments this week to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in response to the request for information, ''HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosures Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; Request for ...

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for issuing periodic guidance on the provisions in the HIPAA Security Rule. It will offer a series of guidance documents to assist organizations in identifying and implementing the most effective and appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, ...

Last month, I reported that the Office for Civil Rights had posted a list of covered entities with privacy breaches affecting more than 500 patients. The list is part of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) new obligations under HITECH. Well, it looks like they're keeping the log up-to-date. I was tipped off by PHIprivacy.net that ...

In another HITECH milestone, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has posted a list of covered entities (CEs) that reported breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. The list, available to the public via OCR's Web site, fulfills an obligation outlined in last year's HITECH Act. CEs have been required to report such breaches since last ...