Help Me With Hipaa

In December, the OCR newsletter was titled Cybersecurity While on Holiday.  First, how very British of them!  Second, is it just when on holiday?  The same rules apply anytime you are on the road with technology and access to the internet.  We see this as something you should review no matter when you plan to access information outside the office.  While some think the corner coffee shop is a great work space others work in hotels and conference rooms all over town without being on holiday at all.  In this episode, we review the suggestions in the newsletter but drill down a bit more into how much of this applies when you are working mobile from home or just down the street as well.   More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/138

At the beginning of 2017 OCR announced several settlements.  Then, the settlement announcements stopped in May as their were leadership changes that continue to happen.  In fact, the only reason this announcement seemed to come out was because it was included in a bankruptcy court filing earlier this month.   For more go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/137

Unless you never listen to nerd-speak you have to have heard the discussion about Meltdown and Spectre over the last few weeks. It is a perfect time to talk about what patch management really means in your cybersecurity protections.  We try our best to discuss it with less geek speak and more English.   For more info HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/136

Here we go for another year!  It is amazing that this is the third new year we have covered on HMWH.  There are so many things that have happened over that time and as we head into 2018, so many things to look into our crystal ball and make 7 educated guesses about 2018.  We may not be predicting the future but we both have some opinions about what we see happening out there in the world of HIPAA, privacy, and cybersecurity in the coming months. Get more at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/135

Is HIPAA compliance expensive?  Or, is it short-sighted to only worry about what HIPAA compliance costs?  A new report from Ponemon Institute, The True Cost of Compliance with Data Protection Regulations, looks at compliance costs across several industries and multinational organizations. The study has a lot of details as we always expect from Ponemon Institute.   Read more at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/134

Each year Bojan Sabioncello, our audio engineer in Split, Croatia, puts together his blooper roll to mock us.  Granted, he spends the whole year having to listen to us without a chance to respond until now.  This his only chance to respond to a year’s worth of our comments and screw-ups. We will be back next week with a new episode.   Happy Holidays from the whole Help Me With HIPAA team!

As 2017 comes to a close, we are making our lists and checking them twice.  Time to find out who we thought was more naughty than nice this year.  The Naughty List 2017 discussion includes everything from big news data breaches such as Equifax and Uber down to stolen hard drives and password issues.  Feel free to add your naughty list nominations in the comments. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/133

A new report on phishing was recently released titled: Data Breaches, Phishing, or Malware? Understanding the Risks of Stolen Credentials. The report of findings from a study that was done by Google, University of California, Berkeley, and the International Computer Science Institute.  It was a year-long study of account hijacking, stolen credentials, phishing and malware attacks.  The findings are clear that phishing is a problem in ways we may not have thought before now.  In the study, the researchers followed other hacker methods used against email addresses they found on the darknet sites for sale. The search netted 12.4 million addresses that were determined to be potential victims of phishing kits out of the total 1.9 billion usernames and passwords exposed by data breaches. So, it is obvious that this isn’t a tiny study over a short amount of time. For more info go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/132

Recently, we have dealt with our clients struggling with vendors in the vetting process. Particularly, tech vendors of any sort. Many vendors have written off the HIPAA compliance requirements by simply saying “We are SOC2 compliant so you don’t have to worry about anything”. Often that is said by sales and management folks with a great deal of confidence. After spending some time at a recent HITRUST meeting I heard just how many people shouldn’t be so confident when making that statement. As with anything else the devil is in the details. What does SOC2 mean and how can you tell if that really means anything to you? Trust but verify is the key to answering that question for yourself. More info: HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/131

We are enjoying the holiday with our families.  But, we didn't want to miss a chance to share time with our listeners.  Today we are replaying one of our favorite episodes 8 Common HIPAA Myths.

Hard to believe another year is coming to an end. It is time to review 2017 and plan for 2018.  That means it is time to make your list of 5 Things To Do Before Year’s End. Just in case you need some help with that list, we made one for you!   HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/130

Text messaging is often the preferred method of communication for many people today.  It does have great advantages with its simplicity, instant delivery, and convenience.  However, I did not mention security on that list.  Text messaging is not secure by default.  Yes, you can secure it but that requires apps, platforms, and planning.  The bottom line is the communication method most people call text messaging is not secured enough to send and receive PHI without patient authorization to use it. For more info HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/129

Lately, there have been a lot of articles in the "nerd news" services about various problems and vulnerabilities looming on the horizon or happening right now.  Usually, there are one or two in a normal week or so that really get our attention.  The last few weeks though it seems a bit different.  Maybe it is just noise or paranoia created to drive traffic to sites.  But, sometimes it becomes overwhelming enough to take time to step back and look at the details as a whole and determine what you really are seeing here.  So, today we discuss:  is there a cyber storm brewing on the horizon? More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/128

Each year we have done a special scary episode for Halloween.  Last year we took you on a tour of a haunted house.  This year for HIPAA Horror Stories V3 we get to hear a campfire horror story.  So gather around and hear how scary HIPAA mishaps can be for us all! For more info go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/127

When it comes to social media, marketing, and HIPAA things can get a little dicey. There are certainly many cases where using social media has gone awry in health care cases.  However, when handled correctly, you can actually use social media, marketing, and HIPAA in a sentence without getting chills down your spine.  Today, Janet Kennedy joins us for a discussion on the positive reasons you should be active on social media and the precautions you should take to make sure everything stays in a positive light. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/126

During the onboarding and termination process is where many mistakes are made that lead to security incidents and even reportable breaches.  Today we discuss why they are important and the kinds of things you should consider having in yours. For more information HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/125

How do you talk to the boss about HIPAA? That is a regular question we get around here.  The staff responsible for compliance gets trained and understands what needs to be done but they don't get leadership support.  Over the years we have had to have those conversations many times.  It is never easy but there are some key pointers to making ground with your argument and turning the tide for supporting your efforts.  Today we cover a few of our ideas on how to broach the subject effectively when you need to talk to your boss about HIPAA. More details at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/124

During the NIST OCR HIPAA Security Conference we covered in the last two episodes, there was also a session on OCR Audit Updates. OCR gave an update on the information gleaned so far from the compliance desk audits that were started in 2016. Their presentation included some interesting details. Today we cover the information they shared so you can compare and contrast those details against your own program. For more details HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/123

This is the second episode covering the things David has to share from the Safeguarding Health Information conference. There are many great points he picked up. As we review them we keep coming back to the reminder that HIPAA is about patient care now.  Join us as we discuss everything from ransomware requirements to security for a small practice on this episode. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/122

The annual NIST and OCR security conference has come around again.  This year, David attended the conference via webcast and shares his notes on the first day of the conference.   Before the conference discussion, we have to touch on the announcement from Equifax about their HUGE data breach. For more information go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/121