Throughout 2020, healthcare organizations have agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle HIPAA violations with HHS’ Office for Civil Rights. Here are four of the largest HIPAA settlements so far this year. 1. Premera Blue Cross agreed to pay OCR $6.85 million to settle potential violations related to a HIPAA breach that affected more than 10.4 million people. The settlement is the second largest payment to resolve a HIPAA investigation, which centered on a […]

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 […]

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 […]

On Aug. 25, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule (IFR) as an emergency regulation under the public health emergency (PHE). Under the IFR, CMS will require all hospitals to which the requirements of 42 CFR part 482 apply — including short-term acute care hospitals, long-term care (LTC) hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, cancer hospitals, children’s hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) — to provide the U.S. Department of […]

From medical respirators to plastic takeout containers, medical professionals and city leaders are working to mitigate the waste created by COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County. At the Cottage hospitals, 3,400 N95 respirators have been sterilized onsite and are being stored for reuse if needed in the future, according to Maria Zate, manager of public relations at Cottage Health. “Medical waste is handled according to Centers for Disease Control guidelines. Most personal protective equipment [PPE] must […]

As healthcare organizations do battle against COVID-19, they also must stay on vigilant defense against cybercriminals intent on taking advantage of the crisis to sow chaos and disrupt clinical processes: barraging inboxes with pandemic-themed phishing emails, perpetrating hospital-crippling ransomware attacks, taking aim at public health agencies and vaccine research facilities. Meanwhile, there are new places to safeguard and secure – whether they’re hastily-erected ad hoc field hospitals or massively scaled up telehealth deployments. And fast-expanding […]