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Home Health & Hospice Week

Patient Privacy:

Don't Drop Your Guard On Patient Record Privacy

Published on Mon Jan 04, 2010

Use these safeguards to keep your record clean. If you've been putting privacy compliance on the back burner, it's time to bring it up front again, because investigators are paying attention, and you should, too. Recently, officials of a health system in Connecticut announced that an unencrypted hard drive with about 1.5 million patients' information was stolen, potentially subjecting that protected health information (PHI) to abuse. Stories like this are certainly eye-catching.Add to that the new focus in privacy since the HITECH Act and you can be sure that patient privacy is gearing up to take center stage. Background: Congress passed the HITECH Act as part of the stimulus bill legislation in February2009. It imposes more patient privacy standards on health care providers, particularly regarding notification requirements when breaches occur. Privacy experts expect the government to issue HITECH regulations very soon. Encryption Is A Best Practice The home care industry [...]
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