Archive for September 29th, 2020

OCR Imposes $6.85M Penalty Over Data Breach

A health insurance company in Washington state has been slapped with the second-largest ever HIPAA violation penalty. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has imposed a $6.85m penalty on Premera Blue Cross to resolve potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Premera Blue Cross is a not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield licensed health insurance company based in Mountlake Terrace. In 2014, the company suffered a data […]

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OSHA Awards $11M In Worker Safety And Health Training Grants

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has awarded approximately $11.2 million in Susan Harwood federal safety and health training grants to 90 nonprofit organizations nationwide. The grants will provide education and training programs to help workers and employers recognize serious workplace hazards, including the coronavirus, implement injury prevention measures, and understand their rights and responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Under President Trump’s Qualified Opportunity Zones […]

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OSHA cites Massachusetts dental practice for respiratory protection violations

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Georgetown Dental LLC in Georgetown, Massachusetts, for violating respiratory protection and other standards, according to an OSHA news release. OSHA cited the dental practice for six serious violations and one other-than-serious violation, with proposed penalties of $9,500, the release stated. The company has paid the penalty in full and abated the citations. OSHA cited the dental practice for failing to provide medical evaluations […]

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Waste generation by hospital emergency departments is highlighted for first time

Emergency departments of hospitals generate significant amounts of environmentally harmful waste which could be reduced through basic changes to disposal policies and practices, while producing lower operating costs, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found. Efforts to optimize the daily waste stream through improvements such as switching from disposable to reusable items in the ED, better sorting of infectious waste, and more effective recycling of items like glass and aluminum could have meaningful impact […]

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