Risk & Quality Management
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Anthem refuses audit by Office of Inspector General before and after massive HIPAA breach
After all the negative press that Anthem suffered when reporting a HIPAA breach that affected 80 million customers, one might think they would avoid more bad publicity. But the health insurer is under fire for refusing to let the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency overseeing the federal employee health benefits program, audit its IT security.
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Good computer logs critical to detecting breach
A detailed record of who accessed data, when, and how often might be the only way an organization can trace the source of a HIPAA breach.
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Blue Cross Blue Shield employees charged with taking and sharing data screen shots
Eleven people have been charged after a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) employee allegedly printed and shared screen shots of more than 5,000 subscriber profiles. The 11 people are charged with identity theft and credit card fraud, in what some observers are calling an example of how criminals can get past even the best HIPAA security measures.
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Premera Blue Cross says 11 million records breached
Boston-based health insurer Premera Blue Cross announced recently that a cyberattack might have exposed medical data and financial information of 11 million customers.
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No date yet for OCR’s HIPAA audits
The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) still has not set a date for when the next round of HIPAA audits, originally planned for fall 2014, will take place.
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Good computer logs critical to detecting breach
A detailed record of who accessed data, when, and how often might be the only way an organization can trace the source of a HIPAA breach. Ensuring the thoroughness of those logs should be a top priority for any healthcare organization.
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Blue Cross Blue Shield employees charged with taking and sharing data screen shots
Eleven people have been charged after a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) employee allegedly printed and shared screen shots of more than 5,000 subscriber profiles. The 11 people are charged with identity theft and credit card fraud, in what some observers are calling an example of how criminals can get past even the best HIPAA security measures.
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One year after surgery, preoperative program to quit smoking still shows benefits
Patients receiving a brief intervention to help them quit smoking before surgery are more likely to be nonsmokers at one-year follow-up, reports a study in Anesthesia & Analgesia.
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Administering lorazepam for patients receiving general anesthesia questioned
Although sedatives often are administered before surgery, a randomized trial finds that among patients undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia, receiving the sedative lorazepam before surgery, compared with placebo or no premedication, did not improve the self-reported patient experience the day after surgery, but was associated with longer time until extubation and a lower rate of early cognitive recovery, according to a study published in the March 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Evidence of economic burden of disparate care for minorities continues to grow
A recent tragic case involving informed consent obtained from parents with limited English proficiency led to a successful lawsuit against the hospital. Eliminating health disparities for minorities would have reduced direct medical care expenditures by $229.4 billion for the years 2003-2006, according to a 2011 study. “If we don’t get a handle on health disparities, the implications are far bigger than social justice,” says LaVeist, the study’s lead author.