November 19, 2024 Did you know that the average cost of a healthcare data breach is $9.77 million? When HIPAA investigations can lead to millions of dollars in expenses for rebuilding IT systems, legal fees, fines, and other costs, it’s easy to overlook the non-monetary consequences of an investigation in which you are found liable. When a practice is found liable, it indicates that it failed to demonstrate that it took the necessary precautions to prevent a breach. This could include not adhering to proper procedures, such as promptly providing a patient’s healthcare records to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) or a State Attorney General. This liability can significantly impact your practice’s reputation. The investigation can take months and make your practice subject to scrutiny. Reputation: A Cost To Your Business When your practice is found liable for a HIPAA violation, it can unfortunately haunt your practice. Once a HIPAA fine is announced, it is posted on the HHS website and reported by numerous compliance news sources. This news release can become a notorious stain on your practice’s reputation, as it is one of the first websites to appear when your practice is searched. This can directly impact your organization’s success. In the digital age, over 75% of all patients search for a new provider online, and this fine will likely be one of the first things they see. Time: The Unease of Waiting Waiting for a response from the OCR or the state during an investigation can be overwhelming and stressful. HIPAA investigations often take several months and require hundreds of pages of documentation, and waiting for a response is an additional non-monetary cost associated with them. In some cases, the fines related to HIPAA violations can take years to finalize. For example, a recent HIPAA fine imposed in 2024 resulted from a breach in 2017. This illustrates that investigating such breaches can take years before any resolution is reached. Even after a fine is levied, time is spent trying to recover and restore one’s reputation, which is just as challenging to manage. Scrutiny: Monitored by the Government Many HIPAA fines include a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) or a set of requirements and years of monitoring before a practice officially completes its payment for a fine. A CAP keeps your healthcare practice under government scrutiny for an extended period. This means that government authorities will closely monitor your practice’s operations, data security measures, and compliance with HIPAA regulations. This nonmonetary cost is another frustrating burden for practice, as it is subject to scrutiny and oversight by authorities. Protecting Your Practice Don’t let a mistake become a detriment to the success of your practice. Ideally, once a HIPAA fine is paid, the practice can return to normal. Unfortunately, the nonmonetary costs of an audit can continue to detriment a practice’s success. That’s why it’s vital to put precautions in place before a significant breach can occur, and if it still occurs, the right documentation is in place to defend your practice. Utilizing a smart software solution for compliance can prepare your practice for a HIPAA investigation. Watch our webinar, featuring compliance experts with a 100% pass rate, to learn more about the audit process and its necessary steps.
The Price of Neglect: Ransomware Fines Hit Healthcare Practices
November 7, 2024 Healthcare practices felt quite a scare on Halloween, with over half a million dollars in fines levied on medical practices. These practices were fined for not taking the necessary precautions against ransomware breaches. The two practices impacted on this day of significant fines include Plastic Surgery Associates of South Dakota in Sioux Falls (PSASD), a multi-location organization, and the Bryan County Ambulance Authority (BCAA), an Oklahoma emergency medical services provider. PSASD was fined $500,000, and BCAA was fined $90,000. These significant fines are just the precipice of the future of healthcare breaches, with ransomware breaches increasing 264% since 2018. What Happened? Major ransomware attacks unfortunately impacted both of these healthcare providers. For PSASD, a breach was discovered that infected nine workstations and two servers in July 2017. This breach impacted over ten thousand patients, putting their data at risk. The malicious actors utilized trial and error to hack into the organization’s system. The data was unable to be restored. The investigation revealed significant gaps in their compliance program, including a missing Security Risk Analysis, inadequate policies and procedures for data handling and breach reporting, and insufficient training. This $500,000 penalty also includes two years of monitoring by the Office For Civil Rights (OCR). For the BCAA, its ransomware attack began in November 2021, but wasn’t reported until May of the following year. After a breach, depending on the severity, you must notify the OCR within 60 days. Since this breach impacted over 14,000 patients or over 500 people, it is considered a large breach. Similar requirements, such as a Security Risk Analysis, adequate policies, a risk management plan, and other safeguards, were missing as found in this investigation. It’s $90,000 fine includes a Corrective Action Plan as well. Protecting Your Practice from Ransomware Ransomware attacks will continue to affect our healthcare system. Although complete immunity is impossible, there are many precautions you can take to protect your practice. Implementing the right technical safeguards, such as firewalls, antivirus software, and a qualified IT team is crucial. Additionally, you can streamline your HIPAA compliance by using intelligent software solutions that help identify your compliance needs unique to your practice. In the event of an attack, these solutions can also guide you on how to respond effectively. To learn more about these smart solutions, meet with a compliance expert today.
Expensive Oversight: The Importance of Timely Patient Record Access
October 24, 2024 There has been a flurry of HIPAA fines in the past few weeks, with over half a million dollars levied in the last month. Just one example is Gums Dental Care, LLC, a small dental practice in Maryland that was fined for a Right of Access violation. Right of Access violations, which involve failing to provide medical records in a timely manner, are a common HIPAA mistake. Another violation for this was issued in August. What Happened? A patient requested her medical records from Gums Dental on April 8, 2019. After not receiving them, she issued a complaint to the OCR in May 2019. The OCR contacted Gums Dental Care for technical assistance and believed the case was over. This was just the beginning. This case spanned years, with a second complaint filed in August 2019 and the OCR sending several data requests through letters and calls to Gums Dental. On October 1, 2020, the OCR sent Gums Dental a proposed resolution agreement and corrective action plan. At the end of the month, Dr. Gums wanted to present her case in front of a judge, believing the patient would commit Medicaid fraud with her records. She also said that the complainant didn’t pay a $25 administrative fee to release the medical records through mail. First, patients should always have access to their medical records, regardless of their reasons. Second, the fee would be waived if the patient requested it digitally, not through mail. In December 2020, the OCR issued a Letter of Opportunity to Gums Dental. At the beginning of the next year, Dr. Gums once again justified her refusal to provide the records since she believed her patient would commit a crime with them. She also believed her website wasn’t secure enough to send them digitally. However, Gums Dental didn’t attempt to send the records at all. By the time the Notice of Proposed Determination was sent in March 2022, roughly three years after the first medical record request, Gums Dental faced a Civil Monetary Penalty fine as high as $7,676,692. However, the OCR ultimately levied a $70,000 fine, recognizing the smaller size of the dental practice. How to Protect Your Practice Common HIPAA fines often involve Right of Access violations. At the federal level, practices are required to provide patients with their medical records within 30 days, and some states have an even shorter timeline. Navigating these unique regulations can be challenging, so having an intelligent solution is crucial. Smart software can streamline compliance for your practice by generating policies and procedures tailored to your needs. These solutions also include access to a team of compliance experts who can help answer your questions and ensure that you are interacting with patients in a HIPAA-compliant manner. To learn more about software solutions, with a compliance expert here.
The Rise of Ransomware in Healthcare: How a Phishing Breach Led to a $240K HIPAA Fine
October 14, 2024 Unfortunately, the future of data breaches is ransomware, accounting for nearly two-thirds of data breaches. As ransomware remains a significant threat in the healthcare sector, another HIPAA fine has been issued concerning a ransomware incident. Recently, a healthcare organization was fined $240,000 following ransomware attacks, including phishing, that compromised the Protected Health Information of over 85,000 patients. What happened? The Center of Orthopaedic Specialists merged with Providence Medical Institute, a healthcare system in southern California. In February 2018, during the transition, an employee clicked on a malicious link from a phishing attempt, which encrypted over 85,000 files with ransomware. Subsequently, two more successful ransomware attacks were launched on the already vulnerable IT system. Between these attacks, PMI restored data using backup tapes. In the final ransomware attack, the malicious actors used stolen credentials from previous attempts to remotely access PMI’s systems. What could they have done? After the breach, several cybersecurity mistakes that affected almost 100,000 patients were brought to light. Before merging with PMI, the Center of Orthopaedic Specialists partnered with another IT company, Creative Solutions in Computers. However, PMI failed to sign a Business Associate Agreement with the IT company during the transition, a crucial HIPAA requirement. This agreement ensures that both parties understand and take the necessary precautions to protect PHI. Furthermore, PMI made numerous IT and cybersecurity mistakes, such as sharing logins, not properly separating private networks from public networks, failing to monitor access controls, and not encrypting ePHI, which allowed anyone with access to view it. The lack of proper IT infrastructure, which could have been easily avoided, significantly impacted numerous patients. What’s next? After the recent HIPAA fine, it’s crucial for your practice to take the necessary precautions and implement cybersecurity measures to safeguard your patients’ data. When establishing a culture of compliance for your practice, using smart software solutions can help you assess your practice’s status and offer efficient solutions to meet requirements, such as electronically managed Business Associate Agreements. To find out more about how intelligent software solutions can protect your practice from cyber attacks, schedule a consultation with a compliance consultant.
Your Medical Records, Your Right: AMR Learns Costly Lesson
August 6, 2024 Did you know the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched a new initiative to ensure proper compliance with patients’ Rights of Access? American Medical Response (AMR), a private ambulance company, has now felt the impact of these efforts, becoming the 49th entity to face a HIPAA Right of Access Enforcement Action. AMR was recently fined $115,200 for failing to provide a patient with their medical records in a timely fashion. AMR’s mistake was brought to the attention of the OCR through a patient complaint. On October 31, 2018, the patient requested a copy of her medical records. Instead of receiving them within the allotted 30 days, this sparked the beginning of a long battle for her records. In January 2019, the patient sent follow-up requests to both AMR and its Business Associate, Centrex. AMR responded to the request in March 2019, sending the patient an invoice and requiring payment before the records were provided. During the ongoing battle for her medical records, she warned AMR she would report the organization to the OCR if her records were not provided. The patient filed a complaint in July 2019. Finally, the records were provided on November 5, 2019, over a year after the initial request. What is Right of Access? HIPAA’s Right of Access rule, which falls under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, allows patients to receive access to their medical records within 30 days with minimal or no charges. These charges can only include the costs of copying and mailing medical records. In some states, this 30-day requirement is shorter, like in California, which requires access to copies within 15 days. This right empowers patients to make informed healthcare decisions, such as sharing their medical history with new providers. What should my practice do? First, proper training is essential to ensure that staff understand the importance of providing patients with their records on time. Additionally, staff must understand and follow the procedures for securely sharing medical information with the patient. Ensuring staff is properly trained and aware of the resources available to them is vital to staying compliant. You could be adding more stress to your plate if you still use a dusty binder to track and manage HIPAA compliance. Keeping track of training, documentation, and the constantly evolving regulations is a complex task that demands a modern approach. Intelligent software solutions can offer staff a centralized compliance hub with everything they need to know when navigating patient requests. To learn more about how smart compliance software solutions can protect your practice, schedule a consultation with an expert today.
A Nearly Million Dollar Mistake: Heritage Valley Health System
July 3, 2024 Did you know that ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly common in healthcare? Since 2018, there has been a whopping 264% increase in large ransomware breaches. The devastating impact of a ransomware breach on an organization is wide-reaching, regardless of its size, as seen with the Change Healthcare breach. It’s imperative to take the proper precautions to ensure that Protected Health Information (PHI) is secure against hacking attempts. At the center of the latest fine, Heritage Valley Health System (HVHS), which operates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, fell victim to ransomware attacks. These attacks infected HVHS systems, affecting sensitive patient information. As the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reviewed the major data breach, several pieces of required documentation, such as a Security Risk Analysis (SRA) and an emergency plan, were absent. This missing documentation has led to a $950,000 fine and three years of corrective monitoring. Let’s explore what you can do to prevent this nearly million-dollar mistake. Importance of an SRA The purpose of the SRA is to review your risks and vulnerabilities regarding the management of ePHI (electronic Protected Health Information). This comprehensive analysis notes the physical, technical, and administrative controls to protect your patient’s PHI. Your SRA is documented proof that your organization understands its weaknesses and is making strides to address them and better protect patient data. While the SRA is a very important document, it is frequently missed. From the last round of random HIPAA audits, which have resumed recently, only 83% of practices and Business Associates could produce a sufficient SRA. SRAs are vital for practice compliance, showcasing growth, and best practices in safeguarding patient data. Check out our recent blog post here to learn more about the SRA. Why do I need plans in place? When running a medical practice, it’s important to be prepared for any situation that could arise. That’s why policies and procedures are so important. If your practice faces a scenario that may compromise PHI, your team needs easy access to a plan for handling the situation calmly. By addressing potential challenges well in advance, your team will feel empowered and confident in their ability to respond. Moreover, as part of your preventive measures, it’s beneficial to designate specific roles and responsibilities for your staff. This ensures that everyone is aware of their duties in any given situation. Cybersecurity Measures Unfortunately, healthcare practices have become very common victims of ransomware attacks. To prepare your organization for this, follow best cybersecurity practices, such as encryption, reviewing access controls, and creating unique sign-ons for all employees. Healthcare organizations should prioritize technical safeguards like encryption, access controls, and multi-factor authentication. However, security goes beyond technology. Implement security awareness training for staff, establish a data breach response plan, and maintain regular backups. Regularly conduct risk assessments and evaluate the security practices of third-party vendors. It’s important to consider partnering with an IT company offering valuable expertise. They can recommend the right tools, update you on evolving threats, and monitor your systems for suspicious activity. This layered approach will strengthen your systems and prepare you for potential attacks. How Smart Software Can Help Fines for HIPAA non-compliance can be staggering, but there are alternatives to the manual tracking and paper binders you may be used to. Intelligent software systems are designed to save you time and headaches and ultimately protect your practice to avoid audits and fines. Software empowers your team to manage your program easily and enables a culture of compliance in the office. It streamlines commonly overlooked requirements such as the SRA with dynamically created documentation and develops comprehensive plans, policies, and procedures so you stay current with the latest requirements. Better yet, when using cloud-based software solutions, you get 24/7 secure access and real-time updates when compliance regulations change. Schedule an educational consultation today to learn more about how software solutions can protect your practice.
HIPAA for Dental Practices: Avoid the Most Common Fines
June 26, 2024 Did you know that as of 2023, less than half of dental offices in the United States are fully HIPAA compliant? Dentists play a crucial role in maintaining oral health and ensuring the safety of their patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI). Although HIPAA regulations can be complex, it’s essential to understand and comply with them to protect your dental practice and patients. This article explores the most common HIPAA fines for dentists and how you can manage them. Right of Access Under HIPAA, patients can access their medical records within 30 days of the first request and should not be charged unreasonable costs. Dentists have been fined several times for violating this right. A practice in Georgia took over a year to provide a patient with her medical records after she refused to pay a $170 copying fee. This incident violated the 30-day timeline, and the fee was also deemed unreasonable, resulting in a fine of $80,000. To uphold a patient’s right to access their medical records, it’s vital to manage record requests promptly and organize them. It’s also essential to avoid charging excessive fees for accessing these records. If you’re unsure about what would be considered a reasonable fee, the OCR has issued guidance suggesting a flat fee of a maximum of $6.50 for accessing records. Social Media Usage On top of managing your practice’s reputation in person, you have to manage it online. Online reviews are a shared resource patients use while selecting a new dentist. 94% of patients use online reviews while choosing a new medical provider. However, while managing your online presence, you must be HIPAA compliant. This means not sharing any of your patient’s PHI in reviews. A dental practice in North Carolina was fined $50,000 for improperly sharing a patient’s PHI online in response to a negative review. The practice shared significant PHI about the patient, which discredited the original review. No matter how inaccurate or false a review may be, sharing a patient’s PHI online is never justifiable. Keeping responses short and sweet is essential to avoid making a social media mistake. Even if someone has shared information in their review, you can’t mention that they are a patient at your practice. It’s essential to use a brief and general response while navigating HIPAA. If you receive a negative review, it’s crucial to stay calm. Getting upset for a few seconds isn’t worth facing thousands of dollars in fines. Next, take the conversation to a private channel. Respond to the comment with HIPAA-compliant communication, such as providing a phone number or encrypted email to further discuss the patient’s experience. Cybersecurity Access In our technology-driven world, most, if not all, dental practices utilize technology to create and store patient data. In recent years, cybersecurity concerns and hacks have infiltrated the healthcare system, with hacking causing 77% of large breaches. Controlling and training staff on technology use is vital for protecting your practice. In a rare case, a HIPAA violation resulted in jail time for an employee at a dental practice. This employee, a receptionist, abused her access to PHI, stealing patients’ identities and making significant purchases with them. She was sentenced to two to six years in prison for her crime. Encrypt and secure information properly to avoid cybersecurity-related fines. Additionally, assign roles and access to employees individually, with every employee having their own login. Periodically review employee access and activity to ensure technology is being used correctly. How Software Can Help There’s a better way to simplify the compliance process for your dental practice. Software offers the ability to streamline your administrative tasks, saving you time and letting you focus on taking care of your patients. Automated and dynamic software helps you be proactive in avoiding these common mistakes, pinpointing your vulnerabilities, and resolving them effectively. Schedule a consultation here to learn more about how Abyde’s intelligent solutions can help create a culture of compliance and protect your practice.
HHS Cracks Down on New Jersey Nursing Facility for HIPAA Violation
April 1, 2024 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has imposed a civil monetary penalty of $100,000 on Hackensack Meridian Health West Caldwell Care Center, a skilled nursing facility in New Jersey. The facility violated the HIPAA Right of Access law. The penalty stems from the facility’s failure to provide a patient’s medical records to their authorized representative in a timely manner, or within 30 days. According to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which investigated the case, Hackensack Meridian Health withheld the records even after receiving documentation demonstrating the individual’s legal right to access them. The requested records were ultimately sent to the authorized representative only after intervention by the OCR. HIPAA guarantees patients the right to access and obtain copies of their medical records. The OCR enforces this regulation and takes action against healthcare facilities that fail to comply. “A patient’s timely access to health records is paramount for medical care,” said OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer in a press release. “The OCR will continue to vigorously enforce this essential right to ensure compliance by health care facilities across the country.” This incident highlights the importance of HIPAA and the rights it grants patients regarding their medical information. It also serves as a reminder for healthcare providers to ensure they have clear procedures in place for handling requests for medical records. This is also the second Right of Access violation ruled on in the last week. Read more about other recent fines here.
Phoenix Healthcare Fine: Don’t be a Fool in Compliance
April 1, 2024 Happy April Fools Day! We hope you’re enjoying the holiday with some lighthearted fun and pranks! Now, HIPAA regulations are no laughing matter. HIPAA regulations are in place to protect patients’ information, making sure we all have the rights we deserve to keep our information safe. Today, we’re talking about the latest HIPAA fine, given to a multi-location nursing care organization in Oklahoma, Phoenix Healthcare. Phoenix Healthcare was fined 35 grand for violating the HIPAA Right of Access Rule, being the butt of the joke of this major fine. Get buckled up, pranksters! We’re all in for some April Fools’ fun but don’t even think about messing with HIPAA. Patient privacy is no joke! So, What Happened? Well, what happened was unfortunately not a prank. Phoenix Healthcare withheld someone’s health information for almost a year after an initial request was made. The OCR was made aware of this not-so-funny situation by a caretaker trying to get the health information of her mother, a patient at the nursing home. Like a joke that went on too long, Phoenix Healthcare eventually did send the information to the daughter. However, the HIPAA Right of Access Rule requires information to be shared within thirty days of a request. Some states, it’s even sooner, like California! The daughter reported the HIPAA violation to the OCR, and at first, Phoenix Healthcare was ordered to pay a fine of 75,000! With an appeal, and an agreement that Phoenix Healthcare updates its HIPAA policies and procedures, and provides training, the fine was lowered to 35,000. Whew! While Phoenix Healthcare is still on thin ice, they saved themselves a lot of money. What can I learn from this? Well, great question! First, HIPAA compliance is no joke. But don’t worry, no April Fool’s pranks here! To stay ahead of the curve, we can make sure your practice is up-to-date on all the HIPAA rules. That way, you can focus on the fun and leave the compliance worries to us. With Abyde, we make sure you Never Stress Over Compliance Again! The Abyde software offers a variety of features to simplify the compliance process. Yes, the words ‘simple’ and ‘compliance’ can be in the same sentence. While this is a chore for Phoenix Healthcare, the Abyde software even includes dynamically generated policies and procedures, having HIPAA-compliant policies in seconds. The training is also covered, with our enjoyable training that somehow turns learning about HIPAA fun! We promise you, this isn’t an April Fools trick, we actually make compliance easy. To learn more about how Abyde can help your practice, schedule a consultation, here.
Most Common HIPAA Violations by Dentists
March 6, 2024 Happy National Dentist’s Day! In honor of this special holiday, here’s a cheesy joke. What is a dentist’s favorite animal? A Molar Bear! Now, please stop cringing. We apologize for the bad joke, if we could, we would give all dentists who use our software a little … plaque. Ba Dum Tsss. Alright, now back to the more serious stuff. Dentists play an important role in our health, ensuring our smiles stay healthy and bright. However, they also have another major responsibility: following HIPAA regulations and protecting our protected health information (PHI). Sometimes, dentists slip up on their compliance responsibilities. Here are some of the most common HIPAA hiccups dentists face. Stolen Devices: One of the most common HIPAA violations for dentists is improper handling of stolen devices with PHI. In our tech-savvy world, computers and other devices play an imperative role in the dentist’s office, withholding information on patient’s personal information like billing, medical records, and more. If you have a device with electronically protected health information or ePHI, in your practice, make sure it is encrypted, or in other terms, very secure software that makes sure the right people are the only ones who can access it. Additionally, if a device is stolen, make sure remote deletion is set up correctly, letting you delete sensitive data from it with another device. ePHI in the wrong hands can be dangerous, but with the right precautions, you can keep patients safe. Disregardful Disposal: Another common HIPAA violation for dentists is improperly disposing of protected health information. From creation to disposal, PHi needs to be handled securely by your practice and complaint Business Associates (BAs). We’ve seen the after-effects of mishandled PHI, resulting in hefty fines. For example, a practice in Massachusetts improperly threw out PHI, throwing it in garbage bins outside the practice, and was fined over $300,000. Retaliating Responses: On top of managing your practice’s reputation in person, you have to manage it online. A very common HIPAA violation is disclosing PHI through social media and review sites. While I know it can be hard to not defend your practice, keeping your cool for sure feels way better than losing thousands of dollars to a fine. A California dentist practice learned the hard way by being fined $23,000 for disclosing PHI on Yelp in heated responses. The moral of the story? Keep it short, sweet, and offline. If you want to share a customer testimonial or image of a customer, ensure a media consent form is signed. Now, those are some of the most common HIPAA violations by dentists. Dentists have a lot on their plate, and sometimes, compliance falls on their list of priorities. That’s where Abyde comes in. We’re here to help make compliance simple for your dental practice, with a plethora of compliance resources. We pride ourselves on our efficiency, like turning the daunting Security Risk Analysis (SRA) into a minutes-long questionnaire, pinpointing everything you need to know for your practice. This results in a scorecard, with best practices to avoid HIPAA violations, including the ones mentioned above! The Abyde software also includes engaging training (that does not require you to shut down your practice for all to complete), dynamically generated policies and procedures, documents, like the media consent form, and more. We’re here so you can focus on what’s important, taking care of patients. Have a wonderful Dentist’s Day, and relax, let us take care of the compliance. For more information on how Abyde can simplify compliance for your practice, email info@abyde.com and schedule a consultation here.