Incident response plans have been a topic of our show several times. But, these days we just can't get enough of a good thing! Actually, there is a reason we are covering it in this episode. I was reviewing a Business Associate Due Diligence from a software provider. In the questionnaire, we always ask if you have a written incident response plan and trained incident response team. They responded Yes, with a comment of "we have an engineering department". More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/115...
Aug 04, 2017•46 min•Ep. 115
There has always been a concern from many people we work with about compliance officer personal liability. Specifically, is a compliance officer personally liable for the compliance of the company? The recent settlement agreement between the FTC and the Chief Compliance Officer of Moneygram has created interesting conversations for compliance circles. In this case, the Chief Compliance Officer of Moneygram was able to reach a settlement in the liability case against him but it included a $250,00...
Jul 28, 2017•38 min•Ep. 114
The monthly OCR Cyber Newsletter for June had some interesting points. The fact that OCR mentions multiple times and in multiple ways that they do not endorse, certify, or recommend specific technology or products should serve as their "OCR mic drop moment" on this discussion. We can dream, can't we! Today we are going to review that newsletter and how they have pointed these things out once again. Before we close out the episode we are also covering some questions and comments from listeners. H...
Jul 21, 2017•51 min•Ep. 113
This is not another episode about preventing and responding to the NotPetya ransomware. There are countless articles about those topics. We are discussing the bigger picture today. In this episode, NotPetya, Windows, and Ransomware, we discuss what happened in the case but also what does all of this really mean in the big picture of cyber attacks. If you don't stay proactive in evaluating what the criminals may do next then you don't have a chance of being anything but reactive. In light of thes...
Jul 14, 2017•41 min•Ep. 112
In June, the NY State Attorney General announced a settlement with CoPilot , a healthcare services company that illegally deferred notice of breach of more than 220,000 patient records . Another annual report was also just released with the latest numbers : 2017 Cost of a Data Breach Study from Ponemon Institute and IBM . Today, we are going to discuss how the two of them can help us all make better decisions where potential breaches of PHI are concerned. Breach reporting costs and decisions in ...
Jul 14, 2017•48 min•Ep. 111
Mobile devices are susceptible to malware attacks, phishing, and other security vulnerabilities just the same as laptops and desktops. The systems most of us have in place are directed at managing the security for laptops and desktops, however. It is important to expand your security controls to address the growing threat that mobile devices introduce to your network and systems regularly. In most cases, it is important to have a "home base" tool that can talk to and monitor the mobile devices. ...
Jun 30, 2017•46 min•Ep. 110
There are countless times we have covered the "my EHR vendor handles HIPAA for me" misconception. The recent $155 million whistleblower lawsuit settlement between eClinicalWorks (eCW) and the government really brings it home how wrong you can be about EHR vendors. Meaningful Use attestations relied heavily on the vendors supplying proper information. eCW set up thousands of organizations to take a major hit based on the details in this case and it's settlement. Especially, when you take into acc...
Jun 23, 2017•46 min•Ep. 109
The 5 stages of grief during a cyber attack really do follow the process of dealing with grief in those familiar 5 stages. Many don't realize that ransomware attacks aren't always just the result of someone clicking in an email and running a program. As Erie County Medical Center found out recently, ransomware attacks can come from a hacker being active in your network too. Those 5 stages of grief during a cyber attack for them and others we have seen is what we will be discussing today. We have...
Jun 16, 2017•52 min•Ep. 108
A major breach of PHI was announced by a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon's office on Jun 1. There are so many things about this case from the fact that it involved a malicious insider to how many different ways proper HIPAA policies and procedures would have stopped it, if not prevented it completely. Celebrity patients records breached in this case may make it hit home with a lot of folks who haven't worried too much about those protections until now. We have talked about insiders as a major vuln...
Jun 09, 2017•49 min•Ep. 107
OCR continued their enforcement trend for 2017 with 2 more settlements announced in May. These stand out on their own because the focus is specific disclosure of PHI instead of major breaches. A total of three patients were involved in these large settlements. This week we review what transpired and what OCR found as violations of privacy for these three patients. For more information go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/106
Jun 02, 2017•44 min•Ep. 106
A wide variety of questions have come in from listeners over the last few weeks. The list is so good we have a whole episode devoted just to answering listener questions. At least one of these will likely apply to you if not several. For more information go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/105
May 26, 2017•51 min•Ep. 105
All of those ransomware outbreaks we have been dealing with since last year were overshadowed this past week by WannaCry. This has been called called the most destructive attack ever. The most concerning part is that was how bad it was but the US wasn't hit that hard. When these kinds of things happen it is always a good idea to review what you learned from the outbreak and any necessary changes you need to make to protect you from this one happening to you. The is the topic of the day. What sho...
May 19, 2017•49 min•Ep. 104
You may not even know about all the applications and support logins that vendors use on your applications, systems, and networks. Vendors may set up admin passwords and share them with their whole staff to support you. If they have unlimited access to the systems out there and the usernames and passwords never expire or log off automatically that is certainly not secure. How do you manage all of those? If there are things that automatically log in and run, what about those? More details at HelpM...
May 12, 2017•43 min•Ep. 103
April has had three more OCR resolution announcements. That's a total of 7 cases for $14.3m in 2017 so far. When we covered resolutions recently I kept waiting for another one to come out and gave up. Then, BAM, three in a row! For more info go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/102
May 05, 2017•43 min•Ep. 102
Are we creating a crisis of trust in healthcare? A business partner put that question out to us recently. We have already been looking at several angles to discuss the patient part in all of this breach and ransomware news. This question seems like the perfect way to approach it. Let's look at the topic and see what we think - Are we creating a crisis of trust in healthcare? For more information on this podcast and how to win $100 Amazon gift card go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/101...
Apr 28, 2017•47 min•Ep. 101
For our 100th episode we wanted to do a Top 10 list. After some thought, we landed on the Top 10 HIPAA Lessons we hope you get from our little podcast. It is hard to believe that we are publishing our 100th episodes of Help Me With HIPAA! Two years ago we started out with this little idea that has become a really exciting venture for both of us. We truly enjoy the responses and interaction from our listeners. Well, first, we are thrilled to HAVE listeners. But more importantly, we love hearing h...
Apr 21, 2017•49 min•Ep. 100
OCR Resolutions 3 and 4 for 2017 were released in February. Examples of what not to do from OCR were released AGAIN. We kept waiting for another resolution to be announced and lump them together. Once we gave up and recorded this episode to review those two you know another one was announced. We will hit that one next time. For now, we review what happened in these cases that resulted in OCR resolutions after a breach notification started an investigation. They are so kind to give us examples of...
Apr 14, 2017•43 min•Ep. 99
Recently, New Mexico passed a new data breach notification law in March. Once it is signed there will only be 2 states that don't have their own notification rules, Alabama and South Dakota. What do all the state laws mean when you are also required to do HIPAA notifications. Most of them say that if you are subject to GLBA or HIPAA the notification laws do not apply to you. But, it is always best to be sure you know what your state requires. HIPAA says that as long as it is more strict than sta...
Apr 07, 2017•44 min•Ep. 98
All the news about ransomware and hackers usually gets the biggest headlines. But, the ones that fly under the radar may be something you should pay more attention to than the big splashy news. Insiders usually don't have to work hard to plot ways to break into your data, you have invited them in and given them access. A damaging assumption is that you don't have to worry about your insiders. Get more info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/97
Mar 31, 2017•44 min•Ep. 97
Call it teleworking, remote access, or mobile access if you have any access to PHI outside of your office, you should have a HIPAA mobile access policy. Any person that accesses you systems and data outside of your internal network should be trained and sign off on commitments to protect your PHI. We've never specifically covered the topic of what should be included in a HIPAA mobile access policy. It is about time we did just that. Learn more at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/96
Mar 24, 2017•45 min•Ep. 96
Building a culture of a compliance is something we have talked about many times in this podcast. We never looked at it as a community problem. The things we heard about training the human element to build a cyber security culture were very exciting to us. Well, at least to Donna. The concepts they covered about training not just the workforce but training the community as a whole to better understand what cybersecurity really means. We also followed that up with a session that explained some mor...
Mar 17, 2017•47 min•Ep. 95
If you saw the movie Catch Me If You Can then you know some of Frank Abagnale's story. Maybe you even read his book Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake . Tom Hanks said "Abagnale’s lecture may be the best one-man show you will ever see." He WAS NOT KIDDING! The famous con man in his youth eventually became a white hat working for the FBI and others to combat fraud and ID theft for over 40 years. Now , he works as a consultant , writer, and speaker on the subject as he continues wo...
Mar 10, 2017•44 min•Ep. 94
The first full day of HIMSS17 HIPAA had a big session. It featured Deven McGraw, Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy at the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). She is also Acting Chief Privacy Office r for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). Clearly, it was one of the sessions at the top of the list for us to attend. We got there early enough to be perched on the front row. In this episode, we review what McGraw covered in her session and our thoughts on it. For...
Mar 03, 2017•49 min•Ep. 93
HIPAA news stories are sometimes so short we need to bundle them together. Some listeners questions are also addressed today. So, we have a little bit of everything in this episode. So stick with us as we go through our HIPAA hodge podge. For more details go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/92
Feb 24, 2017•45 min•Ep. 92
What is HIPAA privacy anyway? The annual reporting deadline for little breaches is up at the end of Feb. That means all those little privacy violations in 2016 must be reported on the HHS website soon if you haven't already done it. Since those little ones often mean so much more than the big ones it made me think it would be a good time to talk about privacy. A recent bizarre case in an Atlanta suburb made me realize just how much we value our privacy but may not realize it until it has been ta...
Feb 17, 2017•37 min•Ep. 91
OCR continues releasing new settlement agreements on their new pace. There have been two announced in January 2017. We have no idea what will happen now but since these two brought in over $2.6m there may not be a reason we will see them stop their pace. As always, we believe in learning from other's mistakes (not schadenfreude, though). Time to learn what these two can teach us.... HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/90
Feb 10, 2017•42 min•Ep. 90
More reasons to have this coverage pop up every day. Whether it is your own business risk management or those required by a business partner in a contract, all businesses should at least evaluate getting cybersecurity coverage. To help us share information on that we have a guest on this episode. Interview with John Miller II , Founding Principal, Sterling Risk Advisors
Feb 03, 2017•45 min•Ep. 89
We reviewed the OCR/HHS list of common HIPAA compliance myths when we first started the podcast. Their list is so long that it spread across 3 episodes. Those episodes are still fairly popular today. For today, though, we are covering our own list of common HIPAA compliance myths that we hear. Common HIPAA Compliance Myths Our list may be very similar to all the other lists out there but it is important to cover those because they are clearly STILL being passed along. Why do we keep hearing the ...
Jan 27, 2017•45 min•Ep. 88
At the beginning of 2016, we did some speculation about what the year would be like in the cybersecurity and HIPAA worlds. Today we plan to review how we did for 2016 and explain expect healthcare breaches continue in 2017. More at https://HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/87
Jan 20, 2017•54 min•Ep. 87
We've talked before about HIPAA showing up in lots of other places. That trend has continue. Now, you will see HIPAA questions on cyber security insurance applications, certification programs from other entities, and now in payment model reforms. Today we are going to talk a little bit about MACRA and HIPAA requirements. If you don't know what MACRA, APMs, and MIPS is all about we may not cover enough to explain it all be we will certainly touch on MACRA and HIPAA crossing paths starting in 2017...
Jan 13, 2017•37 min•Ep. 86
