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Monthly Archive for: "April, 2015"

Is Texting PHI (Protected Health Information) Allowed by HIPAA?

The answer to that question is more complicated than a simple yes or no. “It depends,” says it best. The reason lies in the law itself. The lawmakers who crafted the HIPAA legislation went to great lengths, it seems to me, to make the mandate non-prescriptive. HIPAA compliance doesn’t expressly require the use or avoidance of any specific modes of communication. In fact, the law doesn’t even mention texting PHI! What HIPAA does say is that with any means of communication, appropriate safeguards must be in place to ensure the privacy and security of Protected Health Information (PHI). Whether or […]

HIPAA Risk Assessment: Lessons from General Motors

For healthcare providers who’ve been putting off doing a risk assessment and developing a mitigation plan, Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, could make a compelling case against that kind of procrastination. If ten years earlier GM had identified the ignition switch in last year’s headlines as a potentially deadly defect and taken steps then to fix it, it could have saved at least 13 lives, prevented the company from having to pay $35 million in government fines and untold millions more from civil lawsuits, made the recall of 2.6 million vehicles unnecessary, and spared the CEO from having […]

HIPAA Privacy Rule. HIPAA Security Rule. What’s the Difference?

Eavesdrop on a conversation about HIPAA compliance and most likely you’ll hear the words “privacy” and “security” — sometimes separately, often together, and usually in the context of safeguarding patient information. “So, what exactly is the difference between ‘privacy’ and ‘security’ in relation to HIPAA compliance?” you ask. With today’s HIPAA Quick Tip I’ll try to clear that up. And at the end of this post, you can test your understanding of that distinction with a one-question quiz. (I’m joking. Sort of. You’ll see.) The HIPAA’s Privacy Rule refers to the broad requirements to protect the confidentiality of Protected Health […]